tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50375818552577586402024-02-19T10:59:38.628+01:00Quest for a Genuine Multiparty Democracy in Ethiopia! A single party (Front), known as the TPLF has been fully in control of the country since 1991 after seizing power by violent means. In the last 26 years of its repressive rule, the TPLF regime has never been willing to create a conducive atmosphere for fruitful engagement and a genuine political dialogue with all stakeholders in the country. This blog is mainly focused on raising awareness, driving change and creating impact for the realization of a genuine multiparty democracy in Ethiopia.Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-67536997395413086462017-12-04T15:08:00.000+01:002018-08-30T22:42:32.467+02:00Who Is TPLF's new chairman Debretsion Gebremichael? <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By <a href="http://www.opride.com/"><span style="color: #000099; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Opride</span></a><br />
December 4, 2017</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">DebretsionGebremichael: New chairman and no hopes for the better</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front
(TPLF) on Thursday, Nov. 29, elected Debretsion Gebremichael after 35 days of
marathon meetings and self-appraisals known as gimgema.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Part I of our analysis argued that by elevating Debretsion, a
hardliner, TPLF dashed hopes of reform and that the former deputy spy chief’s
election is a victory for the intelligence faction. Part II looks at
Debretsion’s rise from a low level rebel radio communications technician to the
top of the dominant TPLF hierarchy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Since former Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi’s death in 2012,
Debretsion has emerged as the most powerful member of TPLF at the federal
level. Publicly he has carefully cultivated an image of a hard-working and
“tech-savvy technocrat with doctoral studies in technology.” However, a
recently leaked cache of internal documents reviewed by OPride paints a
portrait of a calculating Machiavellian feared by subordinates but one who is
largely idle and who often appears distant, offering only terse and uninspired
feedback on detailed technical reports. His online interactions with Ethiopian
colleagues is usually cordial but brief. He appears more engaged and personable
when conversing with foreigners. Still, dozens of emails viewed by OPride show
a lacking ability to engage in nuanced conversations in English and a
preference for informal face-to-face meetings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A testament to his commanding and fearsome persona, nearly all
subordinates, particularly those of non-Tigrayan ethnicity, often greet him as
“your excellency” and sign off with “with great respect.” He rarely addresses
his Ethiopian subjects by name but when he does, he usually writes “selam X”
and signs off simply as “Debre.” By contrast, his Tigrayan associates usually
refer to him as “Debre or Debretsi.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 2012, shortly after his elevation as Deputy Prime Minister,
according to one document seen by OPride, Debretsion casually told a UN
official, “I already had big responsibilities but after Meles, we felt we need
to restructure the cabinet so that there will be a team to take full charge of
the nation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is not clear who the “team” included and why the newly installed
prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, could not “take full charge of the
nation” as did his predecessor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While the plan was for former rebels to be gradually phased out, he
vowed not to step back from the added responsibilities. “As you know I’m one of
those fighters who gave their everything to the good of our people and nation,
so I can’t step back. In any case, I’ll try my best to serve more.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Moreover, it was clear that he had his sights set higher. Although he
was tasked with overseeing the economic sector as Deputy Prime Minister,
internal documents viewed by OPride reveal that he was receiving periodic
briefs and progress reports from across the government and his footprints are
all over the place. His newly appointed deputy, Fetlework Gebregziabher,
formerly head of the Financial Intelligence Center and previously an enforcer
in the Addis Ababa municipal party office, has the same reputation of
inflexibility and dogmatic adherence to party ideology and little concern for
the wellbeing of the public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is this vehemently hardline leadership that Tigrayan spin masters
are trying to present as reformers. The party’s propaganda machine is
suggesting that the contest has always been between the reform-minded new
leadership and those who were intent on “maintaining the status quo and doing
business as usual.” To bolster their argument about a dynamic new team at the
helm of TPLF, they are touting the academic credentials of the new leadership:
Fetlework GebreEgziabher (educated at the London School of Economics),
Debretsion (Capella University), Abraham Tekeste (Switzerland), Getachew Reda
(University of Alabama).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is to be remembered that Ethiopia’s current lame-duck prime minister
did the same last year when unveiling his PhD-heavy cabinet, which have come to
witness the lowest point in the ruling party’s quarter of a century hold on
power — unable to manage minor crises, for example, restraining the outlaw
behavior of the Somali Regional President, whose military adventures have since
spiraled out of control of the federal government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A foreign degree is never a measure of a leader’s acumen. For instance,
Debretsion, who was reportedly rejected from various Ph.D. programs before
settling on the Minnesota-based Capella University, was at best a mediocre
student. He allegedly relied on the support of a team of hired researchers and
writing coaches for his thesis. According to a source familiar with the party’s
grueling appraisal process, he’s in fact censured for lack of imagination and
inability to produce anything of substance. Rather known as the bullet points
guy, Debretsion is rated low for his inability to connect with audiences but
also to produce serious policy papers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not only does the new leadership lack any reformist credentials,
Debretsion is too close to the country’s powerful military-industrial complex,
which has been accused widely of exacerbating an already volatile situation.
Several high ranking army generals are accused of being involved in contraband
and illicit trade and being outside of the normal chain of command. Although
his stubbornness is legendary and his reputation for inflexibility is long
established, not to mention his impatience and quick temper, it is not clear
whether Debretsion can and is willing to reign in the military given his cozy
relationship with Ethiopia’s military-industrial complex. In fact, Debretsion
directly controls the country’s largest military contractor, the Metals and
Engineering Corporation (METC), which is awarded huge government contracts
without undergoing the usual bidding process. METC has lately eclipsed the
influence of the plethora of companies housed under EFFORT–also overseen by the
organization Debretsion leads. By sidelining the mercurial widow of the former
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Debretsion has consolidated key levers of power in
his sole hands. METC and EFFORT together control the commanding heights of the
country’s economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Consequently, it is no wonder that the new TPLF chairman is widely seen
as the power behind Hailemariam, who is dismissed as a figurehead and a
placeholder exercising nominal control over key security and power ministries.
Hailemariam once publicly lamented not receiving intelligence briefs and being
reduced to making decisions on hearsay. Debretsion appears to be the person who
in fact supplies the prime minister with his talking points, including on the
recent security directive, which opponents call a new state of emergency,
announced through the National Security Council, a body that lacks the legal
and constitutional basis to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Despite the bleak prognosis, Debretsion and the new TPLF leaders face a
unique opportunity to embrace reform and save the country from a catastrophic
civil war and even state collapse. OPDO has already set in motion an ambitious plan
to realize the promises of the country’s constitution. Unfortunately, so far,
all indications are that Debretsion’s TPLF is likely to seek a combination of
purges and subversion to undermine OPDO’s efforts. That would be a historic
mistake which will set the country back for decades to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><b>Debretsion’s abridged resume:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Minister, Information and Technology, 2010-present<br />
Deputy Prime Minister, 2013-2015<br />
Director of the Information Comm Technology Dev Agency from 2005-2010.<br />
Trade and industry bureau head of the Tigray region and a zonal administrator
from 2001-2005<br />
Deputy of Head of Intelligence, directly under the late Kinfe Gebremedhin, from
the early 1990s until the 2001 TPLF split.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
In addition to his senior party position as a member of the Executive Committee
of TPLF, and now its chairman, Debretsion holds key board positions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Board Chairman, Ethiopian Electric Power</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
Board Chairman, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-19467499231626724592016-08-22T16:57:00.000+02:002016-08-22T16:57:41.374+02:00An Ethiopian medalist just led a protest that could land him in jail<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">By Kevin Sieff, Washington Post<br />August 22, 2016</a><br />
<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;"><br /></a>
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<a class="caption" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #000099; font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 12px;"><em><br /></em></a>
<a class="caption" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #000099; font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 12px;"><em>Feyisa Lilesa the brave (AFP)</em></a><br />
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NAIROBI — When he crossed the Olympics marathon finish line, Feyisa Lilesa put his hands above his head in an "X." Most of those who watched Lilesa's spectacular silver medal performance didn't know what that meant — or just how dangerous a protest they were watching. Lilesa was protesting the Ethiopian government's killing of hundreds of the country's Oromo people — the country's largest ethnic group — that has long complained about being marginalized by the country's government. The group has held protests this year over plans to reallocate Oromo land. Many of those protests ended in bloodshed. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400<br />
people have been killed since November.<br />
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For months, the Oromo have been using the same "X" gesture that Lilesa, 26, used at the finish line.<br />
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At a news conference following the race, he reiterated his defiant message.<br />
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"The Ethiopian government is killing my people, so I stand with all protests anywhere, as Oromo is my tribe," Lilesa said. "My relatives are in prison and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed."<br />
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It was a remarkable turn of events — within seconds, Lilesa had gone from a national hero to a man who might not be able to return to his home country. In addition to those killed, many Oromo protesters are currently languishing in prison.<br />
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In Ethiopia, the state broadcaster did not air a replay of the finish.<br />
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Lilesa was conscious of the danger. He immediately suggested that he might have to move somewhere else.<br />
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"If I go back to Ethiopia maybe they will kill me. If not kill me, they will put me in prison. I have not decided yet, but maybe I will move to another country," he said.<br />
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It wasn’t the first time an Ethiopian athlete had considered defecting after competition. In 2014, four of the country’s runners applied for asylum in the United States after disappearing from the international junior track championships in Eugene, Ore.<br />
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The plight of the Oromo and the Ethiopian government's use of force against civilians have received some attention recently, but nothing as prominent as Lilesa's defiance. Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa said that it was “deeply concerned” about the most recent killing of protesters. But likely because Ethiopia remains a U.S. ally in the fight against Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab, American officials have been relctant to offer any further condemnation.<br />
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Oromo dissidents, particularly those outside Ethiopia, have been active on social media about their cause. As soon as Lilesa crossed the finish line, tweets and Facebook posts went up with pictures of their new folk hero. Ethiopia is one of Africa's fastest growing nations, and it seen by many as a model of economic potential. The government has played down the protests, saying earlier this month that “the attempted demonstrations were orchestrated by foreign enemies from near and far in partnership with local forces.”<br />
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Lilesa has been racing internationally for Ethiopia for more than eight years, and holds one of the world's fastest ever marathon times: 2:04:52.Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-45726800245870637182016-08-19T01:54:00.000+02:002016-08-19T01:54:30.364+02:00The Horn: Another Civil War Looming <a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">By Dawit Giorgis<br />August 18, 2016</a><br />
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A civil war, and possibly genocide, is in the making in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia. The most recent events characterized by regular countrywide demonstrations in defiance of a government ban, by the two largest ethnic groups, the Oromos and the Amharas, have demonstrated once again the power of a marginalized majority to wreak havoc and paralyze the country despite the state’s brutal response.<br />
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Ethiopia’s minority ethnic group, the Tigrai, which comprises less than six percent of the population of ninety million, has ruled the country with an iron-fist for 25 years. As was the case in Rwanda decades ago, the accumulated anger directed at this minority group is likely to explode and result in a human catastrophe with serious implications on regional stability.<br />
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The 2015 US Country Human Rights Report on Ethiopia states: “The most significant human rights problems included harassment and intimidation of opposition members and supporters and journalists; alleged torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; and politically motivated trials and arbitrary killings.”<br />
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The 2016 Human Rights Watch on the Oromo protests depicts a disturbing picture of a government that thrives on systematic repression and official violence. The report, which puts the death toll from the seven-month-long protest at more than 400, rightly exposes the myth of "Ethiopia rising" as a political "Ponzi scheme.” This figure does not include the100 killed during the first weeks of August.<br />
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To camouflage the repressive nature of the regime, the government and its international supporters<br />
have been blatantly asserting that Ethiopia has the fastest growing economy in Africa, while in actual fact it is one of the ten poorest countries in the world currently with over 10,000,000 facing famine.<br />
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Now, after 25 years of absolute control over the people, the regime is facing a deadly resistance to its iron-fisted rule and people are anxiously waiting for its staunchest ally, the US, to intervene.<br />
“Washington must be prepared to press its partner to alter its strong-handed approach to political dissent and counterterrorism or consider ending the relationship”<br />
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In 2012 Genocide Watch reported “Genocide Watch is deeply concerned with the rising number of human rights violations in Ethiopia; as a result Genocide Watch is classifying the situation as a genocide alert. The warning signs have been there for sometime.<br />
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In the case of the Rwandan genocide administration officials admit that the US lost “opportunities to reverse the tide of killings at the earliest stages.” Information obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act shows that President Clinton knew about the planned "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis." Over 800, 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in this genocide. In 1998 Mr. Clinton apologized “for not acting quickly enough or immediately calling the crimes genocide.”<br />
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If civil war begins in Ethiopia it will be unprecedented catastrophe the likes of which has not been seen in Africa. It will also create an opportunity for extremist like al Shabab to flourish in next-door Ethiopia, which has a 40% Muslim population. Because of the Nile River, the lifeline of both Sudan and Egypt, instability in Ethiopia will be a major concern and it is likely that these countries will intervene either directly or indirectly. Together with the failed states of South Sudan, Somalia, Central Africa Republic, Yemen across the Red Sea, and with Sudan and Eritrea tittering as a result of US sanction, the Horn can turn out to be the most complicated security zone the world has yet to see with severe implications for maritime activities in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.<br />
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Because of the protracted war in the Horn of Africa over the last three decades, including some of the world’s longest war, the Horn has become the source of a huge percentage of the world’s refugee and migrant population. With civil war in Ethiopia this percentage can quadruple.<br />
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The US cannot afford to miscalculate the possible consequences of the gross abuses of power for 25 years. Its strategic interest, including the partnership on counter terrorism in the region, can be taken care better by a stable democratic government rather than a fragile autocratic regime, which is most likely to fall soon under the weight of people’s insurrection. Therefore, the United States should see beyond its short-term interest and support the establishment of an inclusive democratic government.<br />
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<em>Dawit Giorgis was a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for Strategic and Security Studies</em>Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-76890610835663501452016-08-12T21:14:00.000+02:002016-08-12T21:14:37.937+02:00USA og Europa må reagere på krisen i Etiopia<span style="background-color: white; color: #979797; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Publisert den </span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #979797; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">12. august 2016</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #979797; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> av </span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #979797; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=no&q=https://radikalportal.no/author/leoul-mekonen/&source=gmail&ust=1471114314147000&usg=AFQjCNGaK6Zp-Cl6cKYTE6UC4fSAQg669A" href="https://radikalportal.no/author/leoul-mekonen/" style="border: 0px; color: #979797; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Leoul Mekonen</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #979797; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><br />
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<img alt="NEAR JIJIGA, EASTERN OGADENIA, ETHIOPIA - OCTOBER 8TH: A column of ONLF rebels are leaving the hill where a week long stand off with ethiopian troops finally ended, October 8th 2006, in Ethiopia. The two rebels are carrying the most important idem of the unit, a light machine gun and its ammo. (Photo by Jonathan Alpeyrie/Getty images)" class="CToWUd a6T" height="1767" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgxZUnui5zopQTXJAnPA6xICSXuNH1ii_d5pQ5-ZdFCJtAI-ylgpx4Mg3BxY65QHXHMC5si05uwgAo6WuM_QiyxOGlGbVHVS4yvXATGmFbQnVuJTXknAdom_negyzuV-FgmGdqZoLK0aJ_tL_PZcvwgpjgfAzG4_2nN7FIBNf9BEXTa1Ee771vOcPC-=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" width="3008" /><span style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.3125rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NEAR JIJIGA, EASTERN OGADENIA, ETHIOPIA - OCTOBER 8TH: A column of ONLF rebels are leaving the hill where a week long stand off with ethiopian troops finally ended, October 8th 2006, in Ethiopia. The two rebels are carrying the most important idem of the unit, a light machine gun and its ammo. (Photo by Jonathan Alpeyrie/Getty images)</span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nesten 100 demonstranter er nylig drept av det etiopiske regimet. Vi kan ikke lengre anse diktaturet som våre venner</b></div>
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<img alt="Leoul Mekonen" class="CToWUd" height="52" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi_RZGWm2kUpCbQiydyhVBo1upADLLzN-jQoejwQyc3DIaIWiI0XPhA5TMFUxvDLYGSIMWd0u2UrDWVPJeda7fH2kndxBQjjZw1qQmcpi-M_yS2xQfaGjzvqY2NYji5VPtPdogSs3PKtJ4nJznL6-KMWkdI2LtkTI7jO2GtwKZGyDd_5PcqEC4=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: auto; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="80" /></div>
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Om Leoul Mekonen<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=no&q=https://radikalportal.no/author/leoul-mekonen/&source=gmail&ust=1471114845008000&usg=AFQjCNEY2wpQTPDdEzzv4LmvxUOJfTzcxw" href="https://radikalportal.no/author/leoul-mekonen/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Flere artikler skrevet av Leoul Mekonen">1 artikler</a>)</span></h5>
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Leoul Mekonen er etiopisk flyktning, menneskerettighets- og politisk aktivist mot det etiopiske regimet for Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia. Han er sosionom og jobber med helse- og sosialt arbeid med etniske minoriteter og psykososialt arbeid med asylsøkere og flyktninger.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">De siste ukene har internasjonale medier begynt å dekke den eskalerte konflikten og den blodige situasjonen mellom demonstranter og det autoritære regimet i Etiopia, hvor nesten 100 demonstranter har blitt drept </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=no&q=http://europe.newsweek.com/un-rights-ethiopia-must-allow-observers-access-after-deadly-protests-489295?rm%3Deu&source=gmail&ust=1471114845008000&usg=AFQjCNFYfjnR0vfRln82qKUPO3MsjPtWgQ" href="http://europe.newsweek.com/un-rights-ethiopia-must-allow-observers-access-after-deadly-protests-489295?rm=eu" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ifølge Amnesty</span></a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. Etiopia er hovedsakelig styrt av TPLF (Tigray People Liberation Front). Hundrevis av mennesker, også barn, har blitt drept i Oromiya- og Amhara- regionene under anti-<wbr></wbr>regjeringsdemonstrasjoner, som har spredd seg siden november 2015. Fortsatt kommer det grusomme bilder og filmer av avdøde personer og alvorlig skadde personer i Oromiya- og Amhara-regionene i Nord-Etiopia, særlig i byene Gonder og Bahir Dar. Dagens alvorlige politiske klima i de to største regionene i Etiopia, er i ferd med å komme ut av kontroll, det kan potensielt skape et folkemord. </span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Farlig returavtale</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dagens alvorlige politiske utvikling i Etiopia og regimets brutalitet viser oss dessuten at det er ekstremt farlig å inngå eller implementere returavtale for etiopiske asylsøkere som har fått avslag i Norge eller andre europeiske land. Det er en alvorlig feil å utsette asylsøkere som har en eller annen tilknytning til opposisjonsbevegelsene i Etiopia for forfølgelse og tortur. Den foruroligende situasjonen kan ikke forstås uten å forstå hvem som har hatt den politiske, økonomiske og militære makten i Etiopia de siste 25 årene, og hvordan makthaverne har klart å opprettholde den hele denne perioden.</span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ett parti har styrt hele Etiopia siden 1991</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Det er flere årsaker bak den eskalerende konflikten i Oromiya- og Amhara-regionene. Det etiopiske regimet kom til makten i 1991 etter 17 års geriljakrig mot marxistregimet. De representerer den etniske minoritetsgruppen fra Tigray-regionen, som utgjør 6 prosent av landets 85 millioner mennesker. Det politiske partiet TPLF (Tigray people Liberation Front), var dannet hovedsakelig for å kjempe for å frigjøre Tigray i samarbeid med «The Eritrirean People Liberation Front.» Mens kommunistregimet kollapset, grep TPLF anledningen til å kontrollere hele Etiopia. Siden 1991 har dette partiet styrt hele Etiopia ved å ha full kontroll over landets forsvar, militærstyrker, etterretning, økonomi og media. Dette har skapt enorm frustrasjon, marginalisering, utstøting og opprør blant andre etniske grupper og opposisjonsgrupper.</span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Etnisk basert politikk som skaper konflikt mellom ulike etniske grupper</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">TPLF har ført en sterkt etnisk basert politikk overfor det etiopiske folket og har skapt unødige konflikter mellom ulike etniske grupper. «Etnisk politikk» har gitt en formidabel mulighet til å splitt og hersk over det etiopiske folket ved å skape en «oss og dem»-følelse, preget av hat, mistanke og fiendtlighet. Istedenfor å skape samhold og samarbeid mellom ulike etniske grupper, har regimet bevisst fremmet fiendtlige holdninger mellom Amhara- og Oromo-befolkningen ved å bruke nasjonale medier. For å ha kontroll over hele landet og få legitimitet som demokratisk styre, har TPLF dannet andre partier ved å rekruttere lojale tjenere fra ulike etniske grupper (Amhara, Oromo, Afar, Somali, osv), som ikke er folkevalgte. Disse partiene har ikke egne ideologer eller selvstendig politisk agenda. De ble utelukkende dannet for å være en forlenget arm for hovedorganisasjonen TPLF, og få kontroll over ulike folkegrupper og deres ressurser. </span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Politiske partier som ikke er i tråd med regimets politiske agenda og interesser blir angrepet, forfulgt og stemplet som terrorister, anti-fredskrefter osv. Regimet har ved terrorlovgivning stengt muligheten for opposisjonsgrupper til å bevege seg fritt og drive politisk virksomhet. Populære politiske partier som Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Oromo People’s Congress (OPC), Ogaden Liberation Front(ONLF) og Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJP) har blitt fratatt sin organisasjons- og forsamlingsfrihet og rett til å stille til valg. Regimet har klart å sitte ved makten ved å slå hardt ned på populære opposisjonsledere, aktivister og medlemmer av opposisjonspartier.</span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journalister og redaktører blir angrepet og folkegrupper blir tvangsflyttet</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I tillegg til fravær av demokratiske valg, blir kritiske stemmer angrepet, særlig folk som jobber i media. I følge Pen Internationals rapport fra 2015, er Etiopia blant de landene som har høyest antall forfulgte og fengslede journalister og redaktører. En annen viktig årsak til den blodige konflikten mellom regimet og resten av etiopiske befolkningen er tvangsflytting av Oromoer, Amhara folk og folk i Gambella fra deres eget land, slik at utenlandske investorer eller personer med tilknytning til regimet skal tjene på det. Millioner av mennesker har hensynsløst blitt tvangsflyttet fra sitt land, uten å bli spurt om samtykke eller få erstatning. I den nordlige delen av Etiopia har det Tigre-dominerte regimet tatt et stort jordbruksområde fra Amhara-regionen og satt den under Tigray-regionens administrasjon. Dette har medført en stor konflikt, som er i ferd med å eskalere til krig mellom Amhara- befolkningen i Gonder og det Tigre-dominerte regimet. </span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">TPLF-regimet har fått støtte fra USA OG EU</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Massearrestasjoner av mennesker tilhørende opposisjonsgrupper, drap og bruk av eksessiv vold mot fredelige demonstranter er ikke noe nytt i Etiopia. Folk har levd med det i de siste 25 årene. Selv om regimets bruk av vold og udemokratiske midler har blitt dokumentert igjen og igjen, fikk TPLF-regimet enorm støtte fra USA og EU som en viktig samarbeidspartner i «the war on terror». Obamas administrasjon snakker klart og tydelig om samarbeidet med det etiopiske regimet for ivaretakelse av amerikanske interesser. USA har hittil valgt å ha mer fokus på sin egeninteresse, enn den grove undertrykkelsen 85 millioner mennesker i Etiopia er utsatt for, under en etnisk gruppe i minoritet som har full kontroll over militæret. Det vesten har glemt, er at å ensidig støtte en bevæpnet minoritetsgruppe, etter hvert vil skape en stor misnøye hos befolkningen i et etnisk delt samfunn. Det vil komme protester som preger, ikke bare Etiopia, men også hele Afrikas Horn. Det er viktig å understreke at Vestens interesse i Afrikas Horn kan ivaretas best under folkevalgte ledere og forsamling enn under en minoritets autoritære styre.</span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Veien til folkemord kan være kort</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">De siste 25 årene har det vært folkeopprør og protester i alle etiopiske regioner, unntatt Tigray-regionen, der regimet kommer fra. Folkeopprørene har blitt slått hardt ned i regionene Amhara, Oromo, Gambella og Ogaden ved å skyte demonstranter nådeløst. De som har utøvd vold er stort sett lojale soldater som hører til Tigre-stammen med navn «AGAZI»- styrken. Dette har allerede skapt alvorlig hat og en fiendtlig holdning mot Tigray-folket i tillegg til motstand mot regimet. Mange som mener at Etiopia er styrt av «Tigray Apartheid-regime», argumenterer at det er bare de andre folkegruppene, ikke Tigray, som har blitt utsatt for blodige angrep de siste 25 årene. Det har aldri vært folkeopprør, massakre av opposisjoner eller tvangsflytting av folk i Tigrayregionen. Dette kan få store konsekvenser når folkets opprør eskalerer i ulike regioner.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dagens favorisering av Tigray-folket i form av privilegier til utdanning, til arbeid og til nøkkelposisjoner i samfunnet gir hat og mistillit til regimet og til Tigray i de andre folkegruppene. Derfor mener mange etiopiere, og også lederen av Genocide Watch, Professor Gregory Stanton, at veien til folkemord kan være kort, dersom Vesten ikke griper inn og støtter eller presser på for politisk reform der alle opposisjonspartier får mulighet til å delta i et demokratisk valg og danne en ny regjering som inkluderer alle partier. Problemer og konflikter som har å gjøre med rettferdig fordeling av ressurser og land kan løses best under en demokratisk valgt regjering. Ikke under et regime som bestemmer alt ved å bruke sine militære styrker.</span></div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Regimet har kun klart å overleve med vestens støtte</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Etiopia trenger vesten mer enn noen gang. Regimet har kun klart å overleve med vestens støtte, som en samarbeidspartner i “krigen mot terror”. Dersom USA og EU gjør sitt beste for å skape demokratiske valg, kan de forhindre et mulig folkemord og endeløs borgerkrig i Etiopia. Etiopia trenger vesten før det er alt for seint.</span></div>
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-8216470051092207712016-08-12T01:20:00.001+02:002016-08-12T01:20:51.213+02:00Ethiopia grapples with the aftermath of a deadly weekend <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">By NPR </a><br />
<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">August 11, 2016</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Protesters chant slogans at a demonstration in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, on Aug. 6. Demonstrations took place last weekend across the country, and Amnesty International says dozens of peaceful protesters were shot dead.</span><span class="credit" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #767676; display: block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Tiksa Negeri/Reuters</span></span></div>
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The videos trickled out slowly on social media — slowly, because those posting them had to use special software to get around what seemed to be a government-imposed internet block.<br />
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<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/reportedly/status/762730761669611520">This video</a> showed thousands of people in the streets of the northern Ethiopian town of Gondar. The size of the crowd was significant in a country where civil protests are usually banned.</div>
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Even more significant? The location o f this anti-government protest.</div>
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For the last nine months, protests have erupted further south, in Oromiya, home to Ethiopia's largest but historically marginalized ethnic group, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35749065">the Oromo</a>. But now the protests have spread north to a second region, <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Amhara.aspx">the Amhara</a>.</div>
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The different protesters have different grievances, but they share a growing frustration with the rule of a third, minority ethnic group — the Tigrayans. They say the Tigrayan elite has a cartel-like grip on the government, military and the fast-growing economy.</div>
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The response by the Ethiopian military to the protesters was swift and brutal. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/08/ethiopia-dozens-killed-as-police-use-excessive-force-against-peaceful-protesters/">Amnesty International says</a> that nearly 100 people were killed over the weekend when soldiers fired directly on demonstrators.</div>
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The U.N. human rights chief has "<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-violence-un-idUSKCN10L1SY">urge[d] the government to allow access </a>for international observers" to investigate what happened.</div>
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Even after those weekend confrontations, witness reports were still filtering back to Addis Ababa, the capital. "We're hearing who's been wounded, who's in hospital, who's been killed, not to mention those who've disappeared without a trace," said Tsedale Lemma, editor in chief of <em>Addis Standard,</em> one of the few Ethiopian magazines that risks open critiques of the government.</div>
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She described an Orwellian spectacle on state-run television, with "ferocious PR work" to discredit the protests. "People are being paraded in the TV, being made to denounce the protests. People denouncing even the use of Facebook."</div>
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For years, Ethiopia's government has warned against a social media-fueled uprising like the one that happened just north, in Egypt, in 2011.</div>
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If you watch Ethiopia's state TV broadcasts, what you'll be told is that the country's protests are fueled by ethnic separatists — or even ethnic terrorists.</div>
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Tsedale disputes this explanation, saying the protesters' beef is with the government, not with any particular ethnic group. "I don't see that people are deliberately orchestrating ethnic violence in the country," she says. "Of course, the government is eager to identify it as such."</div>
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In Ethiopia, politics is ethnicity, and ethnicity is geography. The country is formally divided into autonomous ethnic states, each with its own ethnic government. It's a controversial system called "ethnic federalism" that was instituted by the current regime. Political parties are organized along ethnic lines. Thus any critique of the central government will automatically take on ethnic dimensions.</div>
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The protesters impugn the Tigrayan elite — the government officials and army generals — who, they say, have a choke-hold on the country. The government accuses the protesters of fomenting ethnic war on all Tigrayans, rich and poor. And in the fragile ethnic balance that is Ethiopia, the battle to claim the narrative is just as important as the battle in the streets.Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-19366006009084489732016-08-12T00:38:00.002+02:002016-08-12T00:52:46.960+02:00UN calls for probe into Ethiopia protesters killings <strong><a class="stream" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 16px;"><em>Ninety deaths in Oromia and Amhara regions must be investigated by international observers, UN human rights chief says.</em></a></strong><br />
<strong><a class="stream" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 16px;"><em>But Ethiopia says UN Observers not needed (See 2nd headline story below)</em> </a></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana";"><b><br /></b></span><a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">By Reuters<br />August 11, 2016</a><br />
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The UN human rights chief has urged Ethiopia to allow international observers to investigate the killings of 90 protesters in restive regions at the weekend.<br />
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Zeid Raad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Wednesday that allegations of excessive use of force across the Oromia and Amhara regions must be probed and that his office was in discussions with Ethiopian authorities.<br />
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"The use of live ammunition against protesters in Oromia and Amhara of course would be a very serious concern for us," Zeid told the Reuters news agency in an interview in Geneva.<br />
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He also said that his office had "not seen any genuine attempt at investigation and accountability" since January when the killings of protesters first began.<br />
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Unrest continued in Oromia for several months until early this year over plans to allocate farmland surrounding the regional capital for development.<br />
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Authorities in the Horn of Africa state scrapped the scheme in January, but protests flared again over the continued detention of opposition demonstrators.<br />
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In the weekend, protesters chanted anti-government slogans and waved dissident flags.<br />
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Some demanded the release of jailed opposition politicians. Information on the reported killings has been difficult to obtain, Zeid said.<br />
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He added that any detainee, who had been peacefully protesting, should be released promptly.<br />
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The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said on Monday that "illegal protests" by "anti-peace forces" had been brought under control. It did not mention casualties.<br />
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Ethiopia says UN observers not needed as protests rage</h1>
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<strong>Addis Ababa</strong> - Ethopia has dismissed a plea from the United Nations that it allow international observers to investigate the killing of protesters by security forces during a recent bout of anti-government demonstrations.<br />
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Getachew Reda, a government spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the UN was entitled to its opinion but the government of Ethiopia was responsible for the safety of its own people.<br />
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<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">Reda's comments came after the UN </a><a class="internallink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/calls-probe-ethiopia-protesters-killings-160810163517810.html" target="_self">urged the government</a> to allow observers to investigate the <a class="internallink" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/30-killed-ethiopia-protests-opposition-160808105428331.html" target="_self">killings of at least 90 protesters</a> in the Oromia and Amhara regions over the weekend.<br />
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Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said allegations of excessive use of force must should be investigated and that his office was in discussions with Ethiopian authorities.</div>
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Reda, however, told Al Jazeera that it was not necessary to send observers to specific parts of the country since the UN already had a massive presence in Ethiopia.</div>
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He said the government would launch its own investigation into whether security forces had used excessive force and would do so in consultation with local people.</div>
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He blamed what he called "terrorist elements" for stoking the violence from abroad, without giving further detail.</div>
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At the weekend, an opposition leader told the AFP news agency that up to 50 people were killed as security forces suppressed the protests. Amnesty International put the death toll at 97.</div>
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Oromia, an area which surrounds the capital Addis Ababa, has seen several months of protests, sparked by plans to allocate farmland in the region for development.</div>
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Authorities scrapped the land scheme in January, but protests have flared again over the continued detention of opposition demonstrators.</div>
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-3100372231020634212016-07-23T20:39:00.000+02:002016-07-23T20:39:06.840+02:00The Case of Rwanda: Lessons for Ethiopia <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By
Dawit Woldegiorgis<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
July 22, 2016</span><br />
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This is article is meant for Ethiopians to remind them to learn lessons from the Rwandan genocide. Some might think that such kind of scenario will never happen in Ethiopia. But just think about it: who thought that a country called Somalia with one language, one ethnic group and one religion would so rapidly fall apart and be a failed state for two decades? Who would have thought that the former Yugoslavia would disintegrate and result in the kind of genocide and ethnic cleaning we have seen in the heart of Europe, sending many leaders to the international criminal court? Who would have thought that South Sudan, which had its independence in 2011, after decades of war, would descend to a civil war that is causing the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese? Who would have thought that Muammar Gadhafi would be overthrown in such a swift and brutal way and the country plunging into civil war and becoming the breeding ground of terrorists like ISIS, an evil that slaughtered many innocent young Ethiopian migrants. And the list can go on.<br />
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Let me tell you a first hand story about the genocide in Rwanda just to remind you, though I know that you have read and heard about it and you may have watched the movie Hotel Rwanda. In 1994, in the month of August I received a call from Ellen Sirleaf Johnson (current president of Liberia) who was then the UNDP Africa Bureau Chief. I was asked if I would be willing to head a UN emergency coordinating team to Rwanda. I accepted the offer.<br />
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That was just a few weeks after the genocide, the greatest mass murder since the holocaust, of close to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus ended and the Rwandan Patriotic Front had just entered victoriously to Kigali. I had never been to Rwanda before. Flying over Rwanda is an incredible experience. The scenery does not seem real. It is a beautiful country, a country of mountains as it is called in French (mille collines) and looks as if a green carpet has been plastered over the thousands of mountains with beautiful well-structured villages. But being inside Rwanda at that time would give one a very eerie experience that one would never forget.<br />
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I had come to a country where in the last 100 days (April 6 to July 16, 1994) an estimated 800,000 to I, 000,000 Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered; between 250,000 to 400,000 women raped (67% of these were later infected with HIV); etc. The statistics on the number of survivors, orphans, disabled people, widows etc. are staggering. There are two major ‘ethnic’ groups in Rwanda Hutus composing of 84% and Tutsis 15% and the rest Twas, the pygmy population who comprise around 1%.<br />
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Though the two groups are one culturally and linguistically united people, they had a very brutal past. The genocide was a culmination of accumulated hatred by the majority Hutus towards the minority Tutsis; hatred and mistrust that had its roots in the Belgian colonial era. In 1860, a certain British officer by the name of John Hanning Speke:<br />
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<strong> “ declared that all culture and civilization had been introduced by the taller sharper featured people who he considered Caucasians from the Horn of Africa, Ethiopians” </strong>and I may add perhaps the Oromos in particular. He considered Ethiopians to be of “Caucasian origin, descendent from the biblical King David and therefore superior race to the Negros.” Of course this is not substantiated neither by history nor by science and therefore considered either oral history or just a legend. <em>(I however don’t wish to make this subject of discussion since the intention of this article is to look into the genocide and the lessons that can be learnt). </em>Such a contorted categorization of Africans was a convenient way for Europeans to divide and rule, in this case, by creating the illusion that Tutsi blood was more like them than was the Hutus. We see the same pattern in South Africa apartheid system where the whites were classified as first class citizens and the coloreds (half casts) who were to be the closest to the whites and therefore treated better as second class and the Indians who, though they are black, have sharper features third class and the black Africans came last in the ladder of categorization of South Africans and rights and privileges distributed in that order.<br />
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In Rwanda this categorization resulted in the complete marginalization of the majority during the colonial period. By the end of the Belgian presence in Rwanda in 1959, “forty three chiefs out of forty five were Tutsis as well as 549 sub-chiefs out of 559” in a country where peoples’ lives and land holding system were controlled by chiefs. The result was a political and economic monopoly by the minority ethnic group. The college enrollments for example was:<br />
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1932 forty-five Tutsi and 9 Hutus<br />
1945 forty-six Tutsi and three Hutu;<br />
1954 sixty-three Tutsi and 19 including 13 from Burundi<br />
1959 two hundred seventy nine Tutsi and 143 Hutu.<br />
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Obtaining secondary education for Hutus was very difficult and even those who got the education had difficulty getting employment. This resulted in the creation of a special Rwandese Tutsi minority elites that controlled the lives of the majority and who believed in the Belgian and the Tutsi contorted history that made the Tutsis very different from the Hutus, a superior race narrative, which eventually was embedded into the minds of Tutsis for which they eventually paid a very dear price. The Hutus who were denied everything they had prior to the coming of the colonialists and repeatedly told they were inferior to the Tutsis, began to hate all Tutsis. “<strong><em>The time bomb was set and it was now only a question of when it would go off …</em></strong><em>Rwanda</em> was not a land of peace and bucolic harmony before the arrival of the Europeans (but) there is no trace in its pre-colonial history of systematic violence between Tutsi and Hutu as such…. ideas and myths can kill, and their manipulation by elite leaders for their own material and power interest does not change the fact that in order to operate they first have to be implanted in the souls of men.” (Gerard Prunier, the Rwanda Crisis.) Tutsis started a movement for independence and this angered the Belgians who quickly changed sides and replaced the Tutsi chiefs by Hutus. When Hutu leaders got this power they started settling scores and in 1959 killed over 100,000 Tutsis. A huge number of Tutsis fled to neighboring Uganda, Zaire and Burundi. It was by these refugees that the Rwandan Patriotic Front was established.<br />
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In 1994 the RPF, had intensified the war and was closing in Rwanda. Radio des Milles Collines (RTLM) financed by the government launched its program of hate and extermination just after the Arusha Accord. When the president was returning from Arusha, his plane was struck and he was killed. That incident triggered the genocide though the preparation to eliminate the Tutsis had been going on for quiet sometime. A highly educated Rwandese professor, Ferdinand Nahimana was heading the radio programs. It was full of vitriolic propaganda of hate and clear messages for Hutu extremists to go out and kill. The radio was sending out messages that Tutsis were controlling everything and seeking supremacy and this evil and injustice perpetuated by this minority group can “be cured only by their total extermination” calling them hyenas, snakes, cockroaches, etc. It was hateful, dehumanizing, and designed to incite the people to rise up and kill Tutsis, capitalizing on the years of oppression that Hutus have endured under the real or perceived, direct and indirect control of a minority that only represented 15% of the population. It was not a spontaneous uprising. It was an uprising that had been in the making since the Habermanya government took over (the last government before the genocide). But the root of the problem goes back to the colonial period.<br />
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Many of the killers believed the Tutsis were evil people who have taken everything for themselves and treated the majority as second-class citizens and therefore deserve to be eradicated. Children wee not spared according to Radio Milles Collines “"you must also kill the rat in gestation; it will grow up to be a rat, like the others."<br />
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They used languages too graphic to <em>repeat (<strong>if interested read Hate as a Contagion: the Role of Media in the Rwandan Genocide by Maria Armoudian</strong></em>). Hutus were killed for helping the fleeing Tutsis because, according to the media they were “inyenzi’ cockroaches. Rwandan Hutus were called to rise up and finish the Tutsi once and for all. They were told to use knives, machetes and clubs. <br />
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The first few weeks in Kigali were extremely traumatizing for me. Though the RPF had been there for a month and cleaned up the city as much as it can, there were still bodies littered on the outskirts of the city and roadblocks that have not yet been cleaned up, road blocks made of human corpses. We could see bodies floating on river Kivu though thousands had already been swept away down stream, ‘to Ethiopia’ as their killers stated when they threw them in to the river. One church was still full of corpses, with over 700 Tutsis who had run to the church hoping to get protection. The churches all over Rwanda had been the traditional sanctuary for these deeply religious people but on this occasion they became the convenient place where they were killed in mass. Many churches have been used as killing fields because there were a large concentration of frightened people in one small area. In one case over 2000 people had sought refuge in the largest Catholic Church Saint Famille and all of them were killed after the parish priest handed them over to their killers. Apparently he was a supporter of the Hutu extremists. The Ntarama church, where I saw over 700 corpses, has now been turned over to a genocide museum. At the time I arrived there were still some dogs feasting on human corpses and RPF had to go after stray dogs and shoot them.<br />
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Prior to the genocide, Rwanda had come a long way where it had become sometimes difficult to make a distinction between a Tutsi and a Hutu. There were many instances where Tutsis were mistaken for Hutus and spared from being killed. Moderate Hutus were killed because of their association to the Tutsis and because they did not want to be part of the killing machinery that was being put in place.<br />
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During the first days after the president’s plane was hit, on 6 April 1994, the ‘Interahamwey’ (Hutu militia) started systematically killing Tutsis and Hutu moderates in the villages and neighborhoods by imposing curfews and roadblocks. “The roadblocks and barriers were staffed by soldiers and gendarmerie on the main roads, while communal police, civil self-defense forces, and volunteers guarded others. Together, they successfully stemmed the flight of victims who tried to escape the genocide. Anyone who tried to hide was tracked down by search patrols that scoured the neighborhoods, checking in ceilings, cupboards, latrines, fields, under beds, in car trunks, under dead bodies, in bushes, swamps, forests, rivers, and islands. By April 11, after barely five days, the Rwandan army, interahamwe, and party militias had killed 20,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu" (OAU May 2000).<br />
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In villages where both Tutsis and Hutus were living together people knew who was who and therefore identifying the Tutsi was not difficult. But in the towns and particularly in Kigali, the business and political capital, where people did not know each other, identification was difficult. The roadblocks were the key locations where many were massacred. Fleeing people were asked their ID cards. Tutsis were automatically hacked to death and those who don’t have ID cards were killed as well including Hutus who were suspected of being moderate or associated with Tutsis. In Rwanda of those times all ID cards had to show the ethnic group one belongs to.<br />
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Jean Kambanda, Prime Minister of Rwanda during the months of the genocide, pleaded guilty to genocide and admitted that "he ordered the setting up of roadblocks with the knowledge that these roadblocks were used to identify Tutsi for elimination" and that he participated in the distribution of arms knowing that these would be used in massacres of Tutsis (OAU May 2000).<br />
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There are many lessons leant from the Rwandan genocide. Most relate to the response of the international community once the killing machinery was set off. Effective and active response would certainly have helped to reduce the level of carnage that took place in Rwanda in 1994, but it would never have been able to remove the level of anger and hate that were embedded in the minds of most Rwandese.<br />
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So we come to the most important lesson that Africa and particularly Ethiopia should learn from the genocide in Rwanda. The genocide in Rwanda happened because of ethnic politics and state sanctioned incitement to hate and kill. The responsible officials were disseminating contempt and demonizing the other group. The supreme court of Canada reviewing the response of the Canadian government based on the report of the then commanding Lt. General Romeo Dallaire stated “…. the holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers-it began <strong>with words</strong>. These are the chilling facts of history-the catastrophic effects of racism” and the Rwandan Tribunal stated “these acts of genocide were preceded by-and anchored in-the state orchestrated demonization and dehumanization of the minority Tutsi population-using cruel, biological of Tutsis as ‘inyenzi’ –prologue and justification for their mass murder.” Yes genocide starts with words. Words are the means through which hate or love is expressed. In cases of genocide and crimes against humanity, words are the means through which the flames of hate and intolerance are fanned.<br />
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The situation in Ethiopia has not reached that level yet but if it is allowed to reach that level there is no way to stop it. The rhetoric and irresponsible statements coming out from some people including government officials, from community leaders and from the major ethnic groups, which spreads faster and effectively through social media, suggests that if left on its own the situation could escalate to wide spread hatred and retribution, civil war, crimes against humanity and possibly to genocide. ‘Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)’<br />
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Rwanda showed the worst that human beings can be. It showed how human beings could be manipulated to hate and kill through irresponsible leaders and members of the community in general who may harbor hatred. The hate and anger directed at particular ethnic group accumulates overtime and knows no boundaries when it is unleashed through a concerted effort of hate groups created by the deliberate polices of a government and elite groups who seem to care more about power than the long term consequences of their actions. Ethiopian leaders are accountable for what is happening now and worse on what may happen unless remedial measures are taken. “ Africa’s redemption is not only clasp in the hands of the leadership, but moreover in the active participation in change of the average person, in the home, in the school, in the work place and in their private relationship.” (African Holocaust Society)<br />
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The damage done on the relationship between the various ethnic groups in Ethiopia is grave and warrants the intervention of the international community to exert meaningful pressure to stop this build up of tensions that could lead to a catastrophic end with very severe consequences that could dwarf the Rwandan genocide. The government should be made accountable and be willing to take steps that could restore sanity and heal the gaping wounds. For this to happen, Ethiopia needs leaders who are not consumed with narrow ethnic and personal interests but leaders who capitalize on the common thread that binds the people and the common vision for unity and democracy.<br />
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The international community’s indifference to the early warning signs and faultiness is not acceptable. At this moment the major preoccupation of millions of Ethiopians has become individual and group security, stocking arms and guarding themselves from the excesses of a minority government. Some ethnic groups are spewing hate and vengeance and as in Rwanda (where Hutus hated all Tutsis) people are unjustifiably beginning to hate all Tigreans. This, of course, is unfair to the large majority of Tigreans who are themselves victims of the policies of the current government which does not truly represent the best interests of the majority of Tigreans. When such a sense of insecurity, mistrust and hate is stretched to its logical conclusion it can lead to war and possibly genocide. The silence of the international community in the face of this build up is disturbing. The international community is needed now to ensure that sanity prevails and a system that addresses the grievances of all ethnic groups is installed sooner than later because at this stage the crisis is preventable. Conflicting western interests might not make an effective intervention possible but silence would not be appropriate either. Reconciliation, election, power sharing would not solve the fundamental problems and grievances once war starts because the stakes become higher as groups dig in deeper, the divisions become sharper and the sacrifices too many to allow easy compromises. The voice of the international community at this early stage could prevent this country from going into war with itself.<br />
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With such kind of catastrophe no one wins. In the end every body loses. There will be no Ethiopia to fight about. Each ethnic group in Ethiopia has treasures of wisdom. Let them tap to those wisdoms, let them see what is happening around the country, let them take note of the signs of difficult times ahead, let them prevent harm on each other, let them go back to the drawing table and begin with the common factors that unite them, let them dwell less on their differences and more on the common ties that bond them or else they become one of those countries they never imagined to be. Let Ethiopians have the courage to stand together to challenge the status quo and build a democratic system that would answer the grievances of all, because it is possible. Africa has over 3000 tribes and 2000 languages and there are only 54 states. There is, therefore, no alternative to peaceful coexistence.<br />
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I worked in Rwanda for two years and had the honor to know closely President Paul Kagame, then vice president and head of the military. His challenge and the challenge the people faced were enormous. With half a million Hutu refugees ‘interahamwes’ most of them just across the border, to build a peaceful country and begin reconciliation was indeed a very tall order. The threat of ‘Interahamwes’ unleashing another war was always there until in 1996 they returned in mass. The reconciliation program started in earnest only then. There was no family in Rwanda, in both the Hutu and Tutsi communities that were not severely affected by the genocide and yet there were no alternatives to re reconciliation and the task had to begin soon. It was difficult to bring about a majority rule as well. Democracy, in the way that has been defined by the western world posed a great danger in a country where reconciliation has not yet been complete and the memories of 1994 are still fresh in many minds. The President had to walk a fine line and the majority had to accept the reality. Pragmatism and common sense than idealism prevailed.<br />
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I left Rwanda after two years but what I saw and heard during those years haunted me for a long time until I returned to Kigali after ten years to see a population truly trying hard to leave the past behind, learn from the lessons and move on as one people and one nation. During my two years there I had been to the prisons and talked to former 'Interahamwes' who have been implicated in the genocide. Some were still proud that they did what they did. The unrepentant voices of some were scary and had made me doubt whether there could ever be a true reconciliation. The numerous voices of the survivors were also bitter. But the government and the people chose the right path. For over twenty years people are slowly learning to live together ad heal the wounds together even when they know that some in either communities have been killers and still harbor hate.<br />
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There were thousands who were identified as perpetrators of the genocide locked up in various prisons in Rwanda. To bring about justice and reconciliation, the Rwandan government introduced or reinstituted what is known in Rwandese tradition the Gacaca community court system. In this system the communities select judges where the cases of perpetrators are heard. The court gives mitigated sentences for those who repent. In many cases those who repent are freed and allowed to go back to the community and be part of the reconciliation program where victims and perpetrators live side by side and talking to each other.<br />
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Unlike many other African countries where colonialists carved out the borders, Ethiopia was defined by its own people and its own history and the enormous sacrifices of every ethnic group. It is their only home. Like any family in a home they had differences and on many occasions each encroached on the rights and freedoms of the other in the family. But they stayed together. <br />
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No conflict in Africa is similar to another. But the underlying reasons are always the same: leadership and governance. Ethiopia does not need a genocide or civil war to learn from its own lessons. It had its own turbulent years of nation building. It is now time to learn from its own past and from what has happened elsewhere in Africa and form one united people with freedom, justice and democracy for all.<br />
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As Bob Marley said: “One love, One Heart … Let’s get Together and Feel Alright.”Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-9160032648179792012016-06-10T10:17:00.000+02:002016-06-10T10:17:43.277+02:00Ethiopia Stifles Dissent, While Giving Impression Of Tolerance, Critics Say<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 10.5pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="line-height: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Gregory Warner (NPR)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zcM4magxdZE/V1pysnPaK5I/AAAAAAAAkPs/5pfy9jyRwi0isp1ijGdu6a7ovneLkJexgCLcB/s1600/Hailemariam%2BDesalegn%2Band%2BObama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zcM4magxdZE/V1pysnPaK5I/AAAAAAAAkPs/5pfy9jyRwi0isp1ijGdu6a7ovneLkJexgCLcB/s400/Hailemariam%2BDesalegn%2Band%2BObama.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 1.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: grey; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Ethiopian Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (left), walks alongside President Obama during
the U.S. president's visit to the African nation last July. Critics say
Ethiopia has cracked down hard on the opposition, but makes modest gestures to
give the impression it tolerates some dissent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;">SIMON
MAINA/AFP/Getty Images</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #999999; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The Oromo Federalist Congress, an opposition party
in Ethiopia, represents the largest ethnic group in the country, the Oromo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Yet its office in the capital Addis Ababa is
virtually deserted, with chairs stacked up on tables. A chessboard with bottle
caps as pieces is one of the few signs of human habitation. In a side office,
the party's chairman, Merera Gudina, explains why the place is so empty: Almost
everyone has gone to prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The deputy chairman? Prison. The party secretary
general? House arrest. The assistant secretary general? In prison. Six members
of the party's youth league? All in prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Critics of the Ethiopian government regularly land
in prison. So why isn't Merera Gudina, the chairman of the party and an
outspoken critic of the regime, also behind bars?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The reason, he says, is what he calls "the
game of the 21st century." Less-than-democratic regimes are getting more
sophisticated, and instead of completely crushing dissent, they seek to create
the appearance of tolerance or even a multiparty democracy, explains Merera.
(Ethiopians go by their first names).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">In the case of Ethiopia, a strategy was laid out
by the late former prime minister, Meles Zenawi, after the 2005 election, in
which opposition parties won 32 percent of parliament and appeared poised to
challenge the government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">"Wait for the
opposition to grow legs," </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/2219/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Meles said in a
meeting</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> with top party officials. "And then cut them off."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Merera says he is the current example of that
strategy. He describes himself as a "floating head," while the legs
of his party — all his deputies, his candidates, his organizers — are either
imprisoned or threatened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;">Criticism On Human Rights</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Human rights groups are extremely critical of
Ethiopia, but it is a member of the international community in good standing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/27/426711515/in-ethiopia-obama-calls-for-an-end-to-oppressive-tactics" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">President
Obama paid a visit</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> in July of last year, the first ever by a
sitting U.S. president, and held a press conference with Ethiopia's Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">"We are very mindful
of Ethiopia's history, the hardships that this country has gone through," </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/world/africa/obama-calls-ethiopian-government-democratically-elected.html?_r=0" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Obama
said.</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> "It has been relatively recently in which the Constitution
that was formed, and elections put forward a democratically elected
government."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">A number of human rights groups criticized Obama,
saying he should have pressed much harder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Shortly before Obama's
visit, Ethiopia </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/05/31/480100349/freed-from-prison-ethiopian-bloggers-still-cant-leave-the-country" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">released</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> several noted
opposition journalists and politicians. The deputy chairman of the Oromo
Federalist Congress, Bekele Gerba, was among those freed, and he promptly flew
to Washington to sound an alarm bell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">"Every one of us is
in a very high risk," </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/08/26/434975424/just-out-of-jail-ethiopian-leader-brings-a-sharp-message-to-obama" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #4774cc; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">he told
NPR's Michele Kelemen.</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> "Because anybody who criticizes the
government is always a suspect."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 14.1pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Bekele said his wife, a high school teacher, was
also forced out of her job because of his politics. Bekele declined to use this
trip to the U.S. to stay and apply for asylum. Instead, he said, he was
determined to go back to Ethiopia, no matter what would happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;">Opposition Figure
Re-Arrested</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Soon after his return, Bekele was arrested again,
and remains in prison today. Bekele is considered a moderate and he counsels
nonviolence. He used his free time in prison to translate the writings of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Merera, the party leader, says that targeting
Bekele has a boomerang effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">"When you are suppressing the moderate voice,
then what you get is the radical voice," he warns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The arrest of moderates inside the country may be
amplifying more radical rhetoric in the diaspora, such as rhetoric about
"government overthrow" that Ethiopian officials are quick to
highlight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Genenew Assefa, a government spokesman, points out
that Ethiopian opposition "tends to be extremist," but also takes his
own Justice Ministry to task for arresting so many opposition members.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">"And then we put them in jail, and then it's
a vicious circle," he says with a sigh. "And this is how it works. I
personally, you know, would like to deal with this differently."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">He says that he would like Ethiopia to counter
criticism with politics, not with police.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">But Ethiopian politics appears to be moving away
from democratic freedoms, not toward them. In last year's election, the ruling
party won 100 percent of the seats in parliament. Even the "floating
heads" no longer have a token parliamentary seat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Merera says that the Ethiopian strategy isn't
working.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">"You can't arrest everybody," he says.
He says that what is brewing is "an intifada (uprising), an Ethiopian
intifada — even now, they don't need leadership."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Last
November, ethnically Oromo regions of the country erupted in popular protests.
Activists say 350 people have been killed, and thousands more arrested. There's
a growing fear that Ethiopia's "cut off the legs" strategy is
splitting the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-8184752391818908702016-06-02T05:14:00.000+02:002016-06-02T05:16:49.566+02:00Freed From Prison, Ethiopian Bloggers Still Can't Leave The Country <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By National Public Radio</span> (NPR)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">June 1, 2016</a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Zelalem Kibret remembers the day: July 8, 2015. He was in a prison
library reading a biography of Malcolm X, his own copy, when some guards called
his name and handed him a piece of paper. The message: All charges against him
were withdrawn. He was being released.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"I was asking why," says Zelalem, a 29-year-old lawyer and
blogger. "And nobody was giving us a reason."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Zelalem, who'd been in jail for more than a year on terrorism charges
related to his blog posts, suspected the reason. His release, he believes, was
a "personal gift" to President Obama, then three weeks away from an
official visit to Ethiopia, the first ever by a U.S. president.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The U.S. had been pushing quietly the release of Zelalem and five other
members of Zone 9, his blogging crew. Zone 9 takes its name from the eight
zones of the infamous Kality Prison outside Addis Ababa, where political
prisoners and journalists are held. Activists joke that the 9th Zone is
everything outside the prison walls — the rest of Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"Zone 9 is Ethiopia with relative freedom, but still you felt that
you are in detention," Zelalem explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Zelalem and the other Zone 9 bloggers had been critical of corruption
and repression by the Ethiopian government, but their blogs and Facebook posts
were seen as a relatively safe space for criticism in a country with about 3
percent Internet penetration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But the arrest of six bloggers, including Zelalem, and three other
journalists in 2014 sent a signal that as Facebook was becoming more popular in
Ethiopia, digital reportage might now become just as censored as print
journalism. Journalists are regularly imprisoned under Ethiopia's wide-ranging
anti-terrorism law, which makes it a crime to have contact with any group that
the Ethiopian government deems is trying to overthrow it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At a press conference during Obama's visit, Prime Minister Hailemariam
Desalegn conceded, "We need many young journalists to come up." But,
he said, "We need ethical journalism. There is also capacity limitations
in journalism."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The phrase "capacity limitations" — and its cousin,
"capacity building" — came out of development lingo of the 1990s.
Ethiopian officials often use "capacity" explanations to assert that
journalists are jailed not because they are critical of the government — but
because they are less professional, more unethical and more incendiary than
Ethiopia's fledgling democracy can tolerate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In keeping with this theme, Hailemariam nodded to Obama's traveling
press corps and asked them to "help our journalists to increase their
capacity."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Obama had offered an opportunity for just that, promoting his Young
African Leaders Initiative, which gives scholarships for 1,000 African leaders
to study in the U.S. each summer.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Zelalem, out of prison but unable to get back his university teaching
job, followed Obama's advice. He applied and was accepted to the Young African
Leaders Initiative. This summer, he was supposed to study civic leadership at
the University of Virginia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He won't be going. Ethiopian immigration officials confiscated his
passport at Bole International Airport in November. They also took away the
passports of four of his five colleagues who were released in advance of
Obama's visit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That's when Zone 9 became more than a metaphor. They were literally
imprisoned in their own country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Zelalem sees this as evidence of a new strategy. In past years,
Ethiopia has been willing to let its critical citizens flee the country. (For
several years, Ethiopia has ranked on or near the top of the list of countries
with the most exiled journalists, according to the Committee to Protect
Journalists.) Now, Zelalem says, the government may be deciding that it's
better to keep critics close by.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"Especially for people like us working on social media,"
Zelalem says. "Whether we are here or in America or somewhere else, we may
write and we can reach our audiences. Therefore, it's better to keep [us] here
and silence [us]."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I brought up Zelalem's case with Ethiopia's Minister of Communication,
Getachew Redda, he said he wasn't familiar with it. But he offered a different
explanation for the blogger's rough treatment at the hands of Ethiopian
Immigration: Ethiopia's young institutions, he said — including its judges and
immigration officials — could zealously overstep their bounds. They could even
make mistakes that would take months or years to correct.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The minister's solution? "More capacity building."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-91596722982893379282016-05-29T21:22:00.002+02:002016-05-29T21:22:56.628+02:00Heading the Wrong Way: The Ever Closing Political Space in Ethiopia<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75"
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6DhRofLpNE/V0tAQlYn-BI/AAAAAAAAkOo/sldI7PuBq9sQXC0OYB9faWZtmvHsr-mZQCLcB/s1600/Adotei%2BAkwei.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6DhRofLpNE/V0tAQlYn-BI/AAAAAAAAkOo/sldI7PuBq9sQXC0OYB9faWZtmvHsr-mZQCLcB/s1600/Adotei%2BAkwei.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/author/adotei-akwei/">By Adotei Akwei </a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">May 22, 2016 at 11:22 AM</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G1jl4q7XC4M/V0tAwfr8Z0I/AAAAAAAAkOw/Jr4Q_eOgkhUgEezVkFS0XQ9HL7wqJ3EMACLcB/s1600/Respect%2BHuman%2BRights%2Bin%2BEthiopia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G1jl4q7XC4M/V0tAwfr8Z0I/AAAAAAAAkOw/Jr4Q_eOgkhUgEezVkFS0XQ9HL7wqJ3EMACLcB/s640/Respect%2BHuman%2BRights%2Bin%2BEthiopia.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">By Adotei
Akwei,Managing Director for Government Relations and Kayla Chen,
Government Relations and Individuals at Risk Intern at Amnesty International
USA</span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Sub-Saharan
Africa is facing a growing trend of evaporating political space.
Non-governmental organizations are <b>being heavily and often violently
restricted</b>, and newspapers, bloggers and other voices of dissent or
criticism <b>are being silenced or intimidated into exile.</b><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">In some
countries such as Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
heads of state are rewriting their constitutions to eliminate term limits, in
the process using security forces to squash protests from both political
opposition and civil society. In other countries such as in Angola, the
governments <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/africa/angolas-activist-to-prison-pipeline/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">make use of
their control over their judiciaries</span></a> to intimidate or bury critics
and youth activists in legal processes that cripple them financially or trap in
never ending trials. Elsewhere, governments <a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/ethiopia-anti-terror-rhetoric-will-escalate-brutal-crackdown-against-oromo-protesters"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">invoke the
specter of terrorism</span></a> and threats to national security as
justification for passing sweeping laws whose interpretation empowers them to
impose draconian penalties on oppositional parties and civil society, with
little regard for international standards of due process or international and
regional rights standards on freedom of expression, association and assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">In several
countries government authorities have cracked down on nonviolent protests with
violence. On Monday May 17, the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/kenya-investigate-police-crackdown-against-protesters/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Kenyan security forces brutally beat nonviolent demonstrations</span></a>
organized by the opposition Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD), led by
former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, to demand the dismissal of the members of
the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sKPyAXDk3Jo/V0tAgG0XRnI/AAAAAAAAkOs/vaSsY6AstwQ7Y3xNZFkxsQr1Z0UdpVDnACLcB/s1600/Protesters%2Bin%2BNairobi%252C%2BKenya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sKPyAXDk3Jo/V0tAgG0XRnI/AAAAAAAAkOs/vaSsY6AstwQ7Y3xNZFkxsQr1Z0UdpVDnACLcB/s640/Protesters%2Bin%2BNairobi%252C%2BKenya.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #EEEEEE; line-height: 120%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Protestors run from water
canons after Kenya’s opposition supporters demonstrated in Nairobi, on May 16,
2016. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">On the 6<sup>th</sup>
of May the Ugandan police beat demonstrators who had gathered after it was
announced that opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye would face the<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/protesters-take-to-streets-as-ugandan-opposition-leader-faces-death-penalty-charges-1463413407" target="_blank"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> death penalty </span></a>for charges of treason.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Ethiopia has
been at the forefront of this wave of violent intolerance. Members of the Oromo
ethnic group are facing a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/21/ethiopia-no-let-crackdown-protests" target="_blank"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">brutal crackdown</span></a> following initially peaceful protests that
started in the fall of 2015. Some estimates place the number of persons killed
at the beginning of 2016 at over 400. Thousands have been detained and hundreds
of homes and businesses have been destroyed. The violent crackdown is
consistent with the violent security force crackdowns in Oromia in 2014 and in
Konso in March 2016 as well as against other protests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Closing of
Political Space in Ethiopia</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">This is the
reality facing Ethiopians whom the government designates opponents
of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The
government heavily restricts freedom of expression and association, and
severely constrains political space, especially for civil society
organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">In <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/ethiopia-onslaught-on-human-rights-ahead-of-elections/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">the 2015
elections</span></a>, the EPRDF and its allies claimed all of 547 seats in
Parliament amid concern over the lack of conditions for free and fair
elections. It has become virtually impossible to question, challenge or protest
against any action of the government. According to the <a href="http://data.worldjusticeproject.org/#groups/ETH"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">World Justice Project Rule of Law
Index</span></a>, Ethiopia ranks 91 out of 102 countries with severe
constraints on government powers and fundamental rights. <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2015/ethiopia"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Freedom House</span></a>
also rated the country “not free”. Ethiopia scores 6 out of 7, on a scale of
1-7 from free to not free, on both civil liberties and political rights. Civil
society organizations have been forced to close, thousands of political
prisoners are languishing in prisons, and human rights defenders who dare to
speak out are forcibly imprisoned and beaten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The use of the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation Act continues to be used to silence journalists and
other critics who dare to speak out. People like noted journalist Eskinder
Nega, Oromo leader Bekele Gerba, and Anuak Land rights activist Okello Akway
Ochalla are all behind bars and charged with terrorism for opposing the
government policies. They are just three individual stories of many who are
suffering under the Ethiopian government’s crackdown on human rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Eskinder Nega </span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18825538"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">sentenced to 18 years</span></a> in
jail in 2012 for fulfilling his role as a journalist and questioning the use of
the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to arrest those that criticized the
government. This was not the first time Eskinder had faced unjust
retaliation due to his refusal to be silenced. Eskinder’s son Nafkot was
born in prison in 2005 when both Eskinder and hjs wife Serkalem were <a href="http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1770&ea.campaign.id=20577"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">imprisoned for
criticizing</span></a> the government’s killing of nearly 200 people in
post-election protests in 2005. Four years later after he was unjustly
convicted and imprisoned once again, Eskinder Nega still languishes behind bars
and more convictions have been handed down using the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Bekele Gerba</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">, a prominent leader of the Oromo Federalist
Party, visited the United States last August after his release prior to
President Obama’s visit to Ethiopia. He told NPR that Obama’s visit to Ethiopia
last summer was a trip that sent the wrong message of solidarity to a
repressive government with very little support from its own people. He also
expressed <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/08/26/434975424/just-out-of-jail-ethiopian-leader-brings-a-sharp-message-to-obama"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">uncertainty in
regards to his freedom</span></a> when he returned back to Ethiopia. A few
months after his return Bekele was arrested on December 23, 2015 and held in a
4m X 5m cell with 21 others. Bekele and his counterparts were <a href="http://ecadforum.com/2016/04/22/ethiopia-charges-prominent-opposition-member-bekele-gerba/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">charged on April
22, 2016</span></a> with various provisions set forth in the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. This charge is clearly meant to silence him
and others who dare to criticize and oppose the current regime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Okello Akway
Ochalla,</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> a Norwegian
citizen, was abducted from Juba, South Sudan, two years ago and ended up in an
Addis Ababa court where he <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/81260aec-0cc2-11e6-ad80-67655613c2d6.html#axzz47t26AoJq"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">was sentenced to
nine years in prison</span></a> on April 27, 2016. Okello was the governor of
the Gambella region, a key location of land grabbing and forced relocation by
the Ethiopian Government, before escaping the country following a massacre of
his people, the Anuaks, in 2003. Abducted from South Sudan in 2014 and
brought back to Ethiopia, Okello was charged under the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation for speaking to the international media about the massacre of his
people and the ongoing struggle of the people of Gambella. Rights groups are
alarmed that the primary evidence used to convict Okello was a confession
obtained while Okello was in solitary confinement. There have been reports that
Okello was beaten and tortured. His trial highlights serious failures of due
process and the rule of law in the Ethiopian courts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">More</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> laws are being drafted by the Ethiopian
government that confirm it will continue to suppress opposition and dissent.
Current government policies of making access to education, government jobs and
services contingent on party membership, forcing citizens to undergo “policy
trainings” of indoctrination, and widespread monitoring of all public spaces
has created an environment of fear with no room for public debate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Despite all
this, the ruling ERPD still enjoys support from the international
community. The United States recently renewed a new <a href="http://www.hoa.africom.mil/story/19722/u-s-ethiopia-sign-new-agreement-enhance-security-partnership"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">defense and
security cooperation agreement</span></a> with Ethiopia, which is being
trumpeted as U.S. support of the Ethiopian government’s policies, including the
military’s excessive use of force. Ethiopia also continues to receive hundreds
of millions of dollars from the United States, the European Union and other
countries in development and humanitarian aid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">It is crucial
that governments that commit human rights violations be held to the spotlight
and pressed to be accountable. Countries that provide assistance to those governments
need to prioritize respect for, and protection of human rights for several
reasons.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">First, grave
human rights violations can further stymy development and it potentially drives
voices of dissent to abandon non-violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 19.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Second,
supporting an oppressive regime for the sake of regional security will only
further destabilize a region already ravaged by conflict, unclear borders,
poverty and lack of respect for the rule of law, all in the pursuit of short
term stability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The Ethiopian people deserve
better than that.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #574d4a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">This entry was
posted in <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/category/africa/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Africa</span></a>,
<a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/category/freespeech/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Censorship and
Free Speech</span></a> and tagged <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/ethiopia/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Ethiopia</span></a>, <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/freedom-of-expression/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">freedom of
expression</span></a>, <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/human-rights-defenders/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">human rights
defenders</span></a>, <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/kenya/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">kenya</span></a>,
<a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/peaceful-protest/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">peaceful protest</span></a>
by <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/author/adotei-akwei/"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Adotei Akwei</span></a>.
Bookmark the <a href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/africa/heading-the-wrong-way-the-ever-closing-political-space-in-ethiopia/" title="Permalink to Heading the Wrong Way: The Ever Closing Political Space in Ethiopia"><span style="color: #126786; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">permalink</span></a>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-24826783752767006602016-05-10T20:10:00.001+02:002016-05-10T20:10:35.828+02:00Using Courts to Crush Dissent in Ethiopia<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">By Felix Horne, HRW<br />
May 10, 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">For the past six months, thousands of people </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">have taken to the streets
in Ethiopia’s largest region, Oromia, to protest alleged abuses by their
government. The protests, unprecedented in recent years, have seen Ethiopia’s
security forces use lethal force against largely peaceful protesters, killing
hundreds and arresting tens of thousands more.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The government is inexorably closing off ways for Ethiopians to
peacefully express their grievances, not just with bullets but also through the
courts. In recent weeks, the Ethiopian authorities have lodged new, politically
motivated charges against prominent opposition politicians and others, accusing
them of crimes under Ethiopia’s draconian counterterrorism law.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Just last week, Yonatan Tesfaye Regassa, the head of public relations
for the opposition Semayawi Party (the Blue Party), was charged with “planning,
preparation, conspiracy, incitement and attempt” of a terrorist act. The
authorities citied Yonatan’s Facebook posts about the protests as evidence; he
faces 15 years to life in prison, if convicted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In April, Bekele Gerba, deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist
Congress (OFC), Oromia’s largest registered political party, and 21 others,
including many senior OFC members, were charged under the counterterrorism law,
four months after their arrest on December 23, 2015. Bekele is accused of
having links with the banned Oromo Liberation Front, a charge frequently used
by the government to target ethnic Oromo dissidents and others. Deeply
committed to nonviolence, Bekele has consistently urged the OFC to participate
in elections despite the ruling party’s iron grip on the polls. Bekele and the
others have described horrible conditions during their detention, including at
the notorious Maekalawi prison, where torture and other ill-treatment are
routine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The authorities also charged 20 university students under the criminal
code for protesting in front of the United States Embassy in Addis Ababa in
March, 2016. The “evidence” against them included a video of their protest and
a list of demands, which included the immediate release of opposition leaders
and others arrested for peaceful protests, and the establishment of an
independent body to investigate and prosecute those who killed and injured
peaceful protesters. They face three years in prison if convicted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Ethiopian government is sending a clear message when it charges
peaceful protesters and opposition politicians like Bekele Gerba with
terrorism. The message is that no dissent is tolerated, whether through social
media, the electoral system, or peaceful assembly.</span></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-10435021891438779112016-05-09T23:22:00.000+02:002016-05-09T23:22:08.029+02:00The “Law” as State Terrorism in Apartheid Ethiopia<header><h4>
Posted in <a href="http://almariam.com/category/al-mariam-commentaries/" rel="nofollow">Al Mariam's Commentaries</a> By <a href="http://almariam.com/author/almariam/" rel="nofollow" title="Posts by almariam">almariam</a> On May 8, 2016</h4>
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<img alt="ttplf terror4" class="alignleft wp-image-54932" height="400" scale="1.5" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" src-orig="http://i1.wp.com/almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ttplf-terror4.jpg?resize=620%2C623" src="http://i1.wp.com/almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ttplf-terror4.jpg?w=529" width="398" /><br />
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<strong>Author’s Note</strong>: This is the third installment <a href="http://almariam.com/2016/05/08/the-law-as-state-terrorism-in-apartheid-ethiopia/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> in a series of ongoing commentaries that I expect to post regularly under the rubric, “Apartheid in Ethiopia”.<br />
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The twin aims of the series “Apartheid in Ethiopia” are:<br />
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1) to demonstrate beyond a shadow of doubt that the political system created and maintained by the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) is a slightly <em>kinder and gentler ethnic form</em> of the racial apartheid system practiced by the white minority regime in South Africa before the establishment of black majority rule, and</div>
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2) to engage Ethiopia’s Cheetah (younger) Generation in broad and wide ranging conversation, debate and discussion necessary for the creation of the New Ethiopia cleansed of ethnic apartheid.</div>
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In the series, I aim to go beyond mere critical political and legal analysis and intellectual and academic examination of the objective political, social and economic conditions in Ethiopia under T-TPLF rule. Indeed, I aim to make a clarion call to Ethiopia’s Cheetah (young) Generation work hard and usher the New Ethiopia where the rule of law is supreme and the rule of tyrants ancient history. I call on all Ethiopian Cheetahs to put their shoulders to the wheel and build a city upon a hill in the Land of 13-Months of Sunshine for the entire world to see.<br />
<br />
<strong>Apartheid white minority use of “anti-terrorism law” to terrorize black South Africans </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
John Dugard in his book “Human Rights and the South African Legal Order” (1978, p. 136), perfectly summarized the repressive use of the “law” to maintain a vast system of repression: “<strong>Although designed to combat terrorism, the Terrorism Act [of 1967] has itself become an instrument of terror and a symbol of repression.</strong>”<br />
<br />
The 1948 white minority parliamentary election in South Africa was transformational. Whites were offered two choices. The United Party offered a political pathway which accepted the inevitability of racial integration (if not black majority rule) and urged relaxation of the most repressive laws which limited black African freedom of movement. The National Party favored strict racial segregation and complete disenfranchisement of black South Africans. The National Party won and legislated its system of racial segregation in a series of “apartheid” (apart-hood; being apart) laws which aimed to entrench absolute white rule in South Africa.<br />
<br />
In 1950, the apartheid white minority government passed the “<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Suppression_of_Communism_Act,_1950">Suppression of Communism Act</a>, No 44 of 1950 (three decades later renamed “<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Internal_Security_Act,_1982">Internal Security Act, 1982</a>” expanding the scope of application to anyone “endangering the security of the State or the maintenance of public order”). The Communist Party of South Africa composed of the African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and others were established in 1921 and opposed racial segregation and apartheid. The Suppression of Communism Act criminalized the advocacy of “any political, industrial, social or economic change in the Union by the promotion of disturbances or disorder.” In practice, anyone who dared to criticize or challenge white minority rule was classified as a “communist” and jailed. The Rivonia Trial of 1963-4 and conviction of African National Congress leaders Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki was accomplished principally through this Act. Thousands of other ordinary black South Africans were also prosecuted and banned (subject to extreme restrictions on their movement, political activities, and associations) under this law.<br />
<br />
The apartheid regime passed other laws to clampdown on dissent and protest. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, No. 8 of 1953 sought to suppress public protests against repressive laws and policies. The General Law Amendment Act, No. 39 of 1961 suspended habeas corpus (a legal process to challenge illegal government detention) and bail and authorized a 12-day arbitrary detention. The General Law Amendment Act, No. 37 of 1963 allowed the warrantless arrest and detention of anyone suspected of violating the Suppression of Communism Act. Warrantless detention of 180 days was authorized by the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, No. 96 of 1965.<br />
<br />
In the lead up to passage of the Act in 1967, the apartheid South African government made repeated claims regarding “terrorist attacks on South Africa’s borders”. The <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Terrorism_Act,_1967">1967 Terrorism Act</a> (Act No. 83 of 1967) was enacted to control and suppress terrorism from within and outside of South Africa. The Act became singularly the most repressive law enacted by the apartheid regime to terrorize black South Africans.<br />
<br />
Under the Terrorism Act, a “terrorist” is “(a) any person [who] with intent to endanger the maintenance of law and order in the Republic… [engages in any act which] incites, instigates, commands, aids, advises, encourages or procures any other person to commit, any act; or (b) [engages in any training which] endangers the maintenance of law and order… or (c) possesses any explosives, ammunition, fire-arm or weapon and fails to prove beyond a reasonable doubt [that he has possessed such things for a lawful purpose].<br />
<br />
The Terrorism Act lists a dozen specific terrorist offenses including:<br />
<blockquote>
(a) hampering or deterring any person from assisting in the maintenance of law and order;<br />
(b) promoting by intimidation the achievement of any object;<br />
(c) causing or promoting general dislocation, disturbance or disorder;<br />
(d) crippling any industry or the production or distribution of commodities or foodstuffs at any place;<br />
(e) causing or encouraging an insurrection or forcible resistance to the Government or the Administration of the territory;<br />
(f) encouraging the achievement of any political aim, including the bringing about of any social or economic change, by violence or forcible means;<br />
(g) causing serious bodily injury or endangering the safety of any person;<br />
(h) causing substantial financial loss to any person or the State;<br />
(i) causing or encouraging feelings of hostility between the White and other inhabitants of the Republic;<br />
(j) damaging, destroying, etc., the supply or distribution at any place of light, power, fuel, foodstuffs, water, etc.;<br />
(k) obstructing or endangering the free movement of any traffic on land, at sea or in the air;<br />
(l) embarrassing the administration of the affairs of the State.</blockquote>
Section 6 of the Act gave police complete and unquestioned power over “terrorist” suspects who could be arrested without a warrant and held for 60 days (which could be renewed) “until the Commissioner orders his release when satisfied that he has satisfactorily replied to all questions at the said interrogation or that no useful purpose will be served by his further detention, or until his release is ordered in terms of subsection .” A police officer at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel or above who believes a person to be a “terrorist” could order the arrest and detention of that person. No court on its own could order the release of detainees; only the Minister of Justice had final authority.<br />
<br />
The Act excluded any habeas review or pretrial judicial intervention even to adjudicate detainee allegations of abuse and torture. Information blackout on detained “terrorism” suspects was imposed and the identities and number of detainees could not be publicly revealed. Many detainees, in the absence of public accountability, simply disappeared without a trace (and their whereabouts unknown until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was able to track down the fate of some of the disappeared victims).<br />
<br />
The Terrorism Act made admissible in court “any document” as evidence if such document is acquired from any person or organization suspected of terrorism. Any person alleged to have directly or indirectly assisted in any way a person suspected of terrorism receives same punishment as the accused. Regardless of the location of the occurrence of the alleged terrorist act, a South African court or attorney general could prosecute the case.<br />
<br />
The Terrorism Act placed the burden of proof not on the prosecution or the police but on the defendant. The Act presumed the terrorism guilty until the suspect can prove himself innocent of the charges.<br />
<br />
For decades, the Terrorism Act was used by apartheid police and security forces to detain, harass, intimidate, persecute and prosecute black South African opposition leaders and organizations and facilitate sweep up ordinary protesters and citizens, labor leaders, clergymen. Winnie Mandela, Steve Biko and Cyril Ramaphosa, among many others, were arrested under Section of the Act Section 6 of the Act.<br />
<br />
The horrendous crimes against humanity committed by the white minority apartheid regime in South Africa are documented in three massive volumes of the Truth and Reconciliation commission. [2]<br />
<br />
<strong>T-TPLF use of “anti-terrorism law” to terrorize Ethiopians </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>FIRST INDISPUTABLE FACT:</strong> The T-TPLF is itself a certified terrorist organization listed in the <a href="http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?perpetrator=2127">Global Terrorism Database</a>.<br />
<br />
So there is no question whatsoever that the T-TPLF is a terrorist organization clinging to power in Ethiopia!<br />
<br />
How can a certified terrorist organization use “anti-terrorism law” to go after others it calls “terrorists”? (That is the million dollar question!)<br />
<br />
The whole “terrorism” thing was a god-send for TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi in the mid-2000s. “Terrorism” in the Horn of Africa was both Meles’ get-out-of-jail-card for his crimes against humanity and a welfare card to get maximum handouts from the United States.<br />
<br />
Like the apartheid regime which raised the specter of terrorism crossing into South Africa from neighboring countries before enacting the Terrorism Act in 1967, Meles also invoked jihadists terrorism in Somalia as a pretext for his anti-terrorism measures.<br />
<br />
In a November 2006 in <a href="http://almariam.com/2006/11/28/jihadists-are-coming/">commentary </a> entitled “The Jihadists are Coming”, I argued Meles was using the Somali “terrorism” thing to divert attention from his own crimes against humanity, particularly the massacres he personally authorized in the post-2005 election period in Ethiopia. I opposed Meles’ War in Somalia in the name of fighting terrorism while he is conducting terrorism of his own in Ethiopia: “The problem is the Ethiopian people cannot fight two wars at once: defend themselves in a political war declared on them by Zenawi and his regime, and mount an attack on a distant and invisible enemy rattling sabers somewhere in the “failed state” of Somalia.”<br />
<br />
In December 2006, Meles invaded Somalia to prop up the so-called transitional government in Baidoa. Meles justified his invasion of Somalia as an act of pre-emptive self-defense: “Ethiopian defense forces were forced to enter into war to protect the sovereignty of the nation. We are not trying to set up a government for Somalia, nor do we have an intention to meddle in Somalia’s internal affairs.”<br />
<br />
In 2008, I <a href="http://almariam.com/2008/11/03/the-843-day-war/">debunked</a> Meles’ justifications for prosecuting a proxy war for the U.S. in Somalia. But Meles continued his slick public relations offensive that without him the plague of global terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism will consume the Horn of Africa. Meles and his T-TPLF terrorized the Somali people and committed against them unspeakable crimes against humanity as documented in the Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/08/so-much-fear/war-crimes-and-devastation-somalia">report</a>, “So Much to Fear’: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia”. Meles’ proxy war in Somalia failed in its objective of crushing terrorism and by 2009 T-TPLF troops were withdrawn.<br />
<br />
By 2009, Meles and T-TPLF had invented a terrorist threat in Ethiopia. Anyone who criticized, opposed, openly disagreed or dissented with Meles and the T-TPLF was branded “TERRORIST”!<br />
The T-TPLF has used a diktat (a personal order of the late TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi) known as “<a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,NATLEGBOD,,ETH,,4ba799d32,0.html">Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No. 652/2009</a>” to invent terrorists and fabricate terrorism. That diktat was approved on a 286-91 vote in the T-TPLF rubber stamp parliament. The diktat was so repressive on its face that Human Rights Watch in 2009 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/06/30/ethiopia-amend-draft-terror-law">criticized</a> the draft as a “new and potent tool for suppressing political opposition and independent criticism of government policy.”<br />
The T-TPLF has used its “Proclamation” to muzzle the press, shutter independent newspapers, suppress dissent and neutralize opposition leaders and parties over the past seven years. Hundreds of T-TPLF opponents have been openly charged and convicted while tens of thousands have been secretly arrested and left to rot in T-TPLF jails.<br />
<br />
<img alt="Yonatan Tesfaye 5 Pix" class="alignleft wp-image-54939" height="353" scale="1.5" sizes="(max-width: 374px) 100vw, 374px" src-orig="http://i0.wp.com/almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Yonatan-Tesfaye-5-Pix.jpg?resize=374%2C354" src="http://i0.wp.com/almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Yonatan-Tesfaye-5-Pix.jpg?w=481" width="374" /><br />
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<strong>Terrorism by Facebook!</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
Yonatan Tesfaye is a spokesperson for Blue Party in Ethiopia. The 29-year old is the latest victim of T-TPLF’s “anti-terrorism” Proclamation.<br />
<br />
<strong>Last week</strong> the T-TPLF charged Yonatan with multiple counts of terrorism. His alleged crime is he used Facebook to incite violence, disrupt the social, economic and political stability of the country, criticized the EPRDF (the shell front organization of the T-TPLF).<br />
<br />
Among the specific terrorist allegations against Yonatan include the following statements he <strong>posted</strong> on his Facebook page:<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Our Muslim citizens are complaining that they have been deprived of their houses of worship. They are crying out, “Let our voices be heard.”<br />
<br />
Our Oromo citizens are complaining about land grabs in their areas. They are saying “We do not want the [Addis Ababa] Master Plan.”<br />
<br />
Amhara people are saying ‘Because of those practicing ethnic division, they are being displaced. Where can they go if they can’t live in their own country?’<br />
<br />
The people of Gambella are being uprooted from their land. They are saying, “We do not want to be villagized.<br />
<br />
[Ethiopian] in Tigray, Afar, Wello, Harargie and Somali regions are dying from famine. They are saying “Give us bread (injera).”<br />
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Young [Ethiopians] are perishing in the deserts and seas. Terrorists are beheading them. They are saying “Don’t kill me. Let me live for my poor mother country.”<br />
<br />
Ethiopians have their rights trampled, humiliated, disappeared and exiled. They are suffering oppression. They are saying “We have had enough”.<br />
<br />
Two weeks ago, the T-TPLF filed bogus terrorism <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';"><a href="http://almariam.com/2016/05/01/bekele-gerbas-trial-in-t-tplf-monkey-kourt/">charges</a> </span> against Bekele Gerba and 21 others.<br />
<br />
<strong>T-TPLF m</strong><strong>onkey see, monkey do “anti-terrorism” law</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
Meles claimed his anti-terrorism diktat was not only the best in the world but also “flawless”. Yes, he used the word “flawless” to describe his diktat!<br />
<br />
Meles was the consummate charlatan and a phrase-monger. He was shockingly clueless about the law.<br />
<br />
Meles believed by wholesale plagiarism, cherry picking words, phrases, sentences and clauses from the “anti-terrorism” laws of different countries, he could craft a “flawless” one for himself.<br />
<br />
In January 2012, Meles offered the following <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGA5x5GDarY">description </a> (video of Meles’ statement to “parliament in Amharic, translation below) of his “flawless” anti-terrorism law:<br />
<blockquote>
<em>In drafting our anti-terrorism law, we copied word-for-word the very best anti-terrorism laws in the world. We took from America, England and the European model anti-terrorism laws. It is from these three sources that we have drafted our anti-terrorism law. From these, we have chooses the better ones. For instance, in all of these laws, an organization is deemed to be terrorist by the executive branch. We improved it by saying it is not good for the executive to make that determination. We took the definition of terrorism word-by-word. Not one word was changed. Not even a comma. It is taken word-by-word. There is a reason why we took it word-by-word. First, these people have experience in democratic governance. Because they have experience, there is no shame if we learn or take from them. Learning from a good teacher is useful not harmful. Nothing embarrassing about it. The [anti-terrorism] proclamation in every respect is flawless. It is better than the best anti-terrorism laws [in the world] but not less than any one of them in any way…</em><em> </em></blockquote>
When I heard Meles saying these words on video, I was not sure if I should laugh or cry.<br />
<br />
I knew Meles’ “tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile”, to borrow from Shakespeare, but I was not prepared to see him give a video testament of his total and abysmal ignorance of the law.<br />
Then I thought of Goethe’s maxim: “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.” Meles and T-TPLF are the apotheosis of ignorance in action.<br />
<br />
At the time, I tried to <a href="http://almariam.com/2012/04/02/the-rule-of-law-in-ethiopias-democratic-transition/">tutor</a> Meles that though imitation may best the highest form of flattery, to boldly claim that a mindlessly patched diktat as “flawless” is just mindless. I tried to explain to him on his level that his cut-and-paste anti-terrorism law could be likened to an imaginary biological creature:<br />
<blockquote>
One cannot create a lion by piecing together the sturdy long neck of the giraffe with the strong jaws of a hyena, the fast limbs of the cheetah and the massive trunk of the elephant. The king of the jungle is an altogether different beast. In the same vein, one cannot clone pieces of anti-terrorism laws from everywhere onto a diktat and sanctify it as “flawless in every respect”.</blockquote>
The fact of the matter is that the laws Meles scarfed his “flawless” anti-terrorism law are as flawless as piece of industrial diamond.<br />
<br />
I gave copy cat Meles and his T-TPLF minions a <a href="http://almariam.com/2012/04/02/the-rule-of-law-in-ethiopias-democratic-transition/">lecture</a> on the subject, but I doubt they understood a word I wrote!<br />
<br />
<strong>Where in America, the U.K. or Europe has anyone ever been arrested and prosecuted for posting words on Facebook? Where?!</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
“Flawless” anti-terrorism law, my foot!<br />
<br />
Of course, Meles did not “copy word-for-word the very best anti-terrorism laws in the world”. Meles did not take the “very best” from America, England and Europe.<br />
<br />
Meles took the absolute worst from apartheid South Africa’s 1967 Terrorism Law.<br />
<br />
<strong>T-TPLF terrorism by “anti-terrorism law”</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
Like the apartheid 1967 Terrorism Act, the T-TPLF anti-terrorism Proclamation under section (3) classifies as “terrorist” anyone or “group intending to advance a political, religious or ideological cause [seeks] to destabilize or destroy the fundamental political, constitutional or, economic or social institutions of the country” and “causes damage to public property, natural resource, environment… [or] disrupts public service.”<br />
<br />
In section (5), the T-TPLF law condemns as “terrorist” anyone who “provides a skill, expertise or moral support or gives advice… makes available any property in any manner… monetary, financial or other related services … provides any training or instruction or directive”. Section (6) criminalizes as a terrorist act publication of “a statement that is likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public as a direct or indirect encouragement… of an act of terrorism…” Section (7) criminalizes the “recruitment” of any person “for the purpose of a terrorist organization or committing a terrorist act.”<br />
<br />
Like the apartheid 1967 Terrorism Act, the T-TPLF anti-terrorism Proclamation authorizes warrantless searches and seizure. Section (14) allows warrantless “interception and surveillance on the telephone, fax, radio, internet, electronic, postal and similar communications of a person suspected of terrorism”, “enter into any premise in secret to enforce the interception” or “install or remove instruments enabling the interception.” (I am not sure about this one. It seems Meles scarfed the digital surveillance thing from the 1988 Chinese <a href="http://www.hrichina.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/State-Secrets-Report/HRIC_StateSecrets_02.pdf">law</a> on the Protection of State Secrets. It further allows any “police officer who has reasonable suspicion that a terrorist act may be committed and deems it necessary to make a sudden search…, stop vehicle and pedestrian in an area and conduct sudden search at any time, and seize relevant evidences.”<br />
<br />
Section (19) of the T-TPLF Proclamation authorizes any police officer to “arrest without court warrant any person whom he reasonably suspects of terrorism.” Section (20) allows the court to grant endless continuances and postponements so that the police/prosecutor “for sufficient period to complete the investigation.” Section (23) allows the admission of unverified intelligence reports, hearsay or indirect surveillance evidence including those gathered by “foreign law enforcement bodies” and “confessions of suspects, including coerced confessions. Section (25) authorizes the “House of Peoples’ Representatives” the power to list and de-list an organization as terrorist organization. Section (37) allows the “Council of Ministers” to issue “regulations necessary for the implementation of this Proclamation.” (In other words, Tweedle Dee makes regulation for Tweedle Dum.)<br />
<br />
<strong>Application of the T-TPLF “anti-terrorism law”</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
Proclamation No. 652/2009 in nearly identical ways to the apartheid Terrorism Act is replete with ambiguous, vague and overbroad language. Under the sweeping provisions of the Proclamation, any act, speech, statement, and even thought, could be punished. Anyone the T-TPLF prosecutor/police believe or make-believe is engaged in “advancing a political, religious or ideological cause” and intending to “influence the government”, “intimidate the public”, “destabilize or destroy the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social institutions of the country” could be condemned to long imprisonment or suffer the death penalty. That was precisely what the apartheid Terrorism act did. The apartheid police and prosecutors could charge anyone they wanted without so much as a scintilla of evidence of wrongdoing.<br />
<br />
Making or publishing statements “likely to be understood as encouraging terrorist acts” is a punishable offense. Anyone alleged to have provided “moral support or advice” or has had any contact with an individual accused of a terrorist act is presumed to be a terrorist supporter. That was exactly how the apartheid regime used the Terrorism Act to sweep up suspected anti-apartheid activists in the urban areas.<br />
<br />
Under the T-TPLF Proclamation, anyone who “writes, edits, prints, publishes, publicizes, disseminates, shows, makes to be heard any promotional statements encouraging, supporting or advancing terrorist acts” is deemed a “terrorist”. Peaceful protesters who carry banners critical of the regime could be charged for “promotional statements encouraging” terrorist acts. Anyone who “disrupts any public service” is considered a “terrorist” (Section 3); and workers who may legitimately grieve working conditions by work stoppages could be charged with “terrorism” for disruption. That was exactly what the apartheid regime did with its Terrorism Act to arrest peaceful protesters, students, labor union activists, journalists and other dissidents.<br />
<br />
Under the T-TPLF Proclamation, a person who “fails to immediately inform or give information or evidence to the police” on a neighbor, co-worker or others s/he may suspect of “terrorism” could face up to 10 years for failure to report. Two or more persons who have contact with a “terror” suspect could be charged with conspiracy to commit “terrorism”. That was exactly what the apartheid regime did with its Terrorism Act charging family members, neighbors, friends and acquaintances of suspected terrorists.<br />
<br />
The procedural due process rights (fair trial) of suspects and the accused guaranteed under the T-TPLF constitution and international human rights conventions are ignored, evaded, overlooked and disregarded by the “law”. “The police may arrest without court warrant any person whom he reasonably suspects to have committed or is committing a terrorism” and hold that person in incommunicado detention. The police can engage in random and “sudden search and seizure” of the person, place or personal effects of anyone suspected of “terrorism”. The police can “intercept, install or conduct surveillance on the telephone, fax, radio, internet, electronic, postal, and similar communications” of a person suspected of terrorism. The police can order “any government institution, official, bank, or a private organization or an individual” to turn over documents, evidence and information on a “terror” suspect. Section 6 of the apartheid terrorism Act gave complete power to the police to search and seize persons and evidence at any time and in any place from anyone suspected of terrorism.<br />
<br />
A “terror” suspect can be held in custody without charge for up to “28 days” with unlimited renewals. Any “evidence” presented by the regime’s prosecutor against a “terror” suspect in “court” is admissible, including “confessions” (extracted by torture), “hearsay”, “indirect, digital and electronic evidences” and “intelligence reports even if the report does not disclose the source or the method it was gathered (including evidence obtained by torture). The “law” presumes the “terror” suspect to be guilty and puts the burden of proof on the suspect/defendant in violation of the universal principle that the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Under the apartheid Terrorism Act, a terrorism suspect could be held on a warrantless detention for 180 days (renewable by order of police and prosecutorial authorities). Any evidence including involuntary confessions and hearsay could be used in court as evidence. Like the apartheid Terrorism Act, the T-TPLF Proclamation bars habeas review or pretrial judicial intervention even to adjudicate detainee allegations of abuse and torture.<br />
<br />
In apartheid South Africa and apartheid Ethiopia, terrorism suspects got kangaroo (monkey) court trials.<br />
<br />
Today, T-TPLF prisons are full of opposition leaders, journalists, activists and dissidents falsely charged and/or convicted as “terrorists.” Among the thousands of people falsely accused of terrorism include Eskinder Nega, Bekele Gerba, Ahmedin Jebel, Woubshet Taye, Temesgen Desalegn, Andualem Aragie, Andargachew Tsgie, Emawayish Alemu, Deldessa Waqo Jarso, Akello Akoy Uchula, Zone 9 bloggers, Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye.<br />
<br />
For a partial list of hundreds of T-TPLF political prisoners held under the Proclamation, click <a href="http://gadaa.com/oduu/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/List-of-Political-Prisoners.pdf">HERE</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">For an additional list, click <a href="http://almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/List-of-Ethiopian-Political-Prisoners.pdf">HERE</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';"><br /></span>
<strong>Victims of T-TPLF “anti-terrorism law”</strong><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> </strong><br />
<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></strong>
The T-TPLF “anti-terrorism” diktat form its inception was intended to muzzle journalists from criticizing, youths from peaceably demonstrating, opposition parties from political organizing, ordinary citizens from speaking, civic leaders from mobilizing, teachers from imparting knowledge, lawyers from advocating scholars from analyzing and the entire nation from questioning his dictatorial rule. It is a “law” singularly intended to criminalize speech, police thought, outlaw critical publications, intimidate hearts, crush spirits, terrorize minds and shred constitutional and internationally-guaranteed human rights.<br />
<br />
In the police state Ethiopia has become, opposition political and civic leaders and dissidents are kept under 24/7 surveillance, and the ordinary people they meet in the street are intimidated, harassed and persecuted. The climate of fear that permeates every aspect of urban and rural society is reinforced and maintained by a structure of repression that is vertically integrated from the very top to the local (kebele) level making impossible dissent or peaceful opposition political activity. As former president under the T-TPLF and currently an opposition leader Dr. Negasso Gidada has <a href="http://almariam.com/2011/10/03/dictatorship-is-state-terrorism/">documented</a>, the structure of state terrorism in Ethiopia is so horrific one can only find parallels for it in Stalin-era Soviet Union:<br />
<blockquote>
The police and security offices and personnel collect information on each household through other means. One of these methods involves the use of organizations or structures called “shane”, which in Oromo means “the five”. Five households are grouped together under a leader who has the job of collecting information on the five households… The security chief passes the information he collected to his chief in the higher administrative organs in the Qabale, who in turn informs the Woreda police and security office. Each household is required to report on guests and visitors, the reasons for their visits, their length of stay, what they said and did and activities they engaged in. … The OPDO/EPRDF runs mass associations (women, youth and micro-credit groups) and party cells (“fathers”, “mothers” and “youth”). The party cells in the schools, health institutions and religious institutions also serve the same purpose….</blockquote>
<strong>Apartheid South Africa and T-TPLF state terrorism</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
In any country where the rule of law prevails and an independent judiciary thrives, such a diktat would not pass the smell test let alone a constitutional one. But in a world of kangaroo courts, rubberstamp parliaments and halls of vengeance and injustice, the diktat of one man, one party is the law of the land. So, in 2016 Ethiopia has become George Orwell’s 1984: Thinking is terrorism. Dissent is terrorism. Speaking truth to power is terrorism. Having a conscience is terrorism. Peaceful protest is terrorism. Refusing to sell out one’s soul is terrorism. Standing up for democracy and human rights is terrorism. Defending the rule of law is terrorism. Peaceful resistance of state terrorism is terrorism.<br />
<br />
State terrorism is the systematic use and threat of use of violence and coercion, intimidation, imprisonment and persecution to create a prevailing climate of fear in a population with a specific political message and outcome: “Resistance is futile! Resistance will be crushed! There will be no resistance! ”<br />
<br />
State terrorism paralyzes the whole society and incapacitates individuals by entrenching fear as a paramount feature of social inaction and immobilization through the exercise of arbitrary power and extreme brutality.<br />
<br />
In Ethiopia today, it is not just that the climate of fear and loathing permeates every aspect of social and economic life, indeed the climate of fear has transformed the “Land of Thirteen Months of Sunshine” in to the “Land of Thirteen Months of Fear, Loathing, Despair and Darkness”.<br />
<br />
When the State uses the “law” to silence and violently stamp out dissent, jail and keep in solitary confinement dissenters, opposition leaders and members, suppress the press and arbitrarily arrest journalists, trash human rights with impunity, trample upon the rule of law and scoff at constitutional accountability, <strong>does it not become a terrorist state?</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Welcome to Apartheid Ethiopia!</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong> (To be continued…)</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<a href="http://almariam.com/2016/05/08/the-law-as-state-terrorism-in-apartheid-ethiopia/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Parts I and 2 available at the following links:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://almariam.com/2016/02/21/a-special-message-in-a-bottle-to-ethiopian-cheetahs-born-free-live-free/">http://almariam.com/2016/02/21/a-special-message-in-a-bottle-to-ethiopian-cheetahs-born-free-live-free/</a><br />
<br />
[2] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Reports:<br />
<br />
Volume I: <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%201.pdf">http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%201.pdf</a><br />
<br />
Volume II: <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%202.pdf">http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%202.pdf</a><br />
<br />
Volume III: <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%203.pdf">http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%203.pdf</a></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-38356389446758399122016-05-06T21:33:00.000+02:002016-05-06T21:33:47.457+02:00Ethiopia’s Simmering Sores and the Re-Opening of Old Wounds<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(197, 202, 205); margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #999999; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 8.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; padding: 0cm;">May 2, 2016 | </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Kalkidan Yibeltal & Tesfalem Waldyes </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">(</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://addisstandard.com/analysis-ethiopias-simmering-sores-and-the-re-opening-of-old-wounds/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #cd1713; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Addis
Standard</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iVQaoe-s-u8/VyzsbETDm0I/AAAAAAAAkNQ/io95kOaaqnkL5sS24Nsq9bcLfdLVyUJ7QCLcB/s1600/bilde%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iVQaoe-s-u8/VyzsbETDm0I/AAAAAAAAkNQ/io95kOaaqnkL5sS24Nsq9bcLfdLVyUJ7QCLcB/s400/bilde%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The current government in
Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), often
claims the multi-national constitutional federalism that it introduced a
quarter century ago answered the country’s age-old question – famously known as
the ‘national question’ – once and for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Ethiopia’s constitution, the government further claims, is
multi-foundational by its nature and adequately addresses the politics of
recognition and inclusion for Ethiopia’s long marginalized nations; better yet
it guarantees the right to self-determination up to secession. States are now
autonomous and free from the yolk of a centralized state and the notion of “one
country, one people, and one language”, a notion that had violently governed
Ethiopia’s oppressed mass for at least a century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c3HVFha3yuE/Vyzs0Jrd9GI/AAAAAAAAkNU/8tXy0MlmIM4li_FHS99IHAjRchbM87cWQCKgB/s1600/bilde%2B2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c3HVFha3yuE/Vyzs0Jrd9GI/AAAAAAAAkNU/8tXy0MlmIM4li_FHS99IHAjRchbM87cWQCKgB/s400/bilde%2B2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Bilde_x0020_2"
o:spid="_x0000_i1028" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Regional-States-300x232"
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Today’s Ethiopia is a ‘federal democratic republic’ of nine autonomous
national regional states: Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Harari,
Oromiya, Somali, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) and
Tigray. All of them home to an incredibly diverse and free people, so the story
goes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">For the last two decades, therefore, anyone who questions the accuracy
of these narratives is labeled as an outright enemy of this unique polity, a
polity born out of its people’s age-old grievances where “unity in diversity”
is the order of the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Trouble in paradise</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">But a five month persistent protest by the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest
ethnic group, for whom the inaugural of a multi-national constitutional
federalism was a long awaited victory, which started in Nov. 2015 has laid bare
the otherwise flawless narrative Ethiopians have believed in for more than two
decades. What began as an opposition against a The Addis Abeba Master Plan,
which was, by any legal standard, prepared in a clear violation of the
fundamental principles of federalism, led to historical questions that the
Oromo of a federated Ethiopia continued demanding an answer for, including the
questions of national identity, of economic injustice and land ownership as
well as a genuine political representation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kCOCq9nIMsQ/VyztYJgcwMI/AAAAAAAAkNc/snP40MPxtUAepeFqhyYV52l5wjZKc4ydgCLcB/s1600/bilde%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kCOCq9nIMsQ/VyztYJgcwMI/AAAAAAAAkNc/snP40MPxtUAepeFqhyYV52l5wjZKc4ydgCLcB/s400/bilde%2B3.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">However, a look back at just the last eighteen months alone reveals
that the Oromo are not the only ones that seem to be haunted by the re-opening
of the old wounds that Ethiopians thought were treated two decades ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Incidents that resulted in the killings of hundreds, mass arrests and
disappearances as well as displacements of thousands of Ethiopians in the hands
of the state security apparatus show that the questions of national identity,
the urge for self-administration and equitable use of resources (mainly land)
and lack of adequate political representation have re-emerged afresh in five
out of the nine independent regional states in the federated Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The ever restive Gambella</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Home to around 200, 000 people, the Nuer, Agnuak, Apana, Mezhenger, and
Komo are the main indigenous peoples of Gambella. But it is also home to other
ethnic groups from the country such as the Amhara, Oromo and Tigray. According
to a 2007 census, of the total ethnic composition in Gambella the Nuer consists
40%, followed by the Agnuak who make up 27%, Amhara 8%, Oromo 6%, Mezhenger
5.8%, Keffa 4.1%, Mocha 2%, and Tigray 1.6%, as well as other ethnic groups
mainly from various regions in Southern Ethiopia who constitute 5.5%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Unlike the triumphant declaration of a constitutional federalism
however, Amharic, which is the mother tongue of neither the Nuers, nor the
Agnuaks, is the working language of the State.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Historically, Gambella is a region prone to ethnic conflicts. The 2003
unprecedented massacre of more than 400 Agnuaks in the hands of government
security forces and ‘highlanders’, according to the HRW, left Gambella stuck in
crisis watch list of several international organizations including the United
Nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">What happened at the end of January 2016 can therefore be easily taken
for the usual sporadic skirmishes between the two dominant ethnic groups; it
involved both and covered vast areas in the region, touching villages from
Abobo to Itang, Gog to Jor, and a refugee camp in Pugindo, as well as a prison
cell in the capital, Gamebella town. By the government’s account 14 people,
including Gatdet Gony, Deputy Head of the Transport and Road Development
Office, were killed in the clash. Several other accounts put the number as high
as 50.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The federal government quickly dismissed the cause as a simple
confrontation between two men from both tribes, but the cumulative fear by the
Agnuaks about the Nuer’s political dominance (which is often alleged to be
supported by the federal government) and near absolute control over resources
by the Nuer plays a significant role in instigating these conflicts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Gambella’s small nuisances </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">While the rest of Ethiopia was welcoming the Ethiopian New Year of 2007
on Sept 11, 2014 with jubilant festivities, Meti, a small town in Godere
District in Mezhenger Zone of Gambella was struggling to contain a chaos that
besieged the villagers. Around 8 AM that morning a group of men broke into a
prison located in Kebele 01 and released several inmates who then went door to
door to residences of the ethnic Mezhengers, killing many including women and
children, according to charges brought against the perpetrators.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The Mezhenger consider people who came from various parts of the
country, mostly from the highland areas of the North and Central Ethiopia and
had settled there as ‘highlanders.’ Some of these ‘highlanders’ had lived in
the district for decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Although the flare ups of many of these conflicts always come in the
form of petty individual confrontations between the ethnic Mezhengers and these
‘highlanders’, the fundamental problem is one that Ethiopia’s two decades old
constitutional federal dispensation failed to address effectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The Mezhenger zone is one of the three zones in Gambella bordering in
its southeastern part the Sheka and Bench Maji zones of SNNPR, as well as the
Agnuak of Gambella and Illubabor of Oromiya to the north. Endowed with abundant
natural resources it is a region where the long arms of the federal government
easily tampers with. The area is home to large scale tea plantations owned by
foreign companies and fertile lands contracted to both local and foreign
companies without much say from the Gambella regional state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">A recent report by <b><i>Fortune </i></b>newspaper, a private
weekly, revealed that “Nearly 100 commercial farming investors in Gambella are
losing thousands of hectares of land because the region leased by mistake lands
under federal jurisdiction.” When asked to comment on the issue, Gatluak Tut
Kon, president of the Gambella regional state, told the newspaper, “You should
talk to the federal government. I wish to give no comment on the case.” For
many who believed in the principles of constitutional federalism that Ethiopian
officials claim to have instilled, this was no ordinary news headline.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Critics also lament that the demands of the Mezhenger people to want to
forcefully evict “highlanders” from their native land comes from the insecurity
of resource distribution and a sense of political exclusion. They were always
Ethiopia’s marginalized periphery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"> Konso, Qucha, Wolkait, Qimant and all that demand</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Following the creation by
the SNNPR regional state of the Segen Area Peoples Zone in March 2011, the
Konso community in the south was </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><a href="http://addisstandard.com/commentary-what-was-troubling-konso/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #cd1713; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">staging peaceful protests for the last 10 months. </span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The Konso people fear the creation of the new zone forces them to lose
their “right to self-administration and their right to advance their culture,
language and national identity, enshrined in the constitution.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The response from the regional government was similar to the response
the federal government often avails to contain similar demands elsewhere:
deploying the region’s Special Forces who asnwered the community’s constitutionally
legitimate demands with violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Although to a lesser extent, the Qucha people, who also reside in the
SNNPR regional state, are demanding a similar question: the right to
self-administration. Forty elected representatives of the community have come
to Addis Abeba at the end of 2014 and have raised the question of national
identity and self-rule with the House of Federation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">In the north of Ethiopia the Qimant people in the Amhara regional
state, north of Gondar, also demand what the Konsos and Quchas were demanding
for years. A recent conflict that flared up in Nov. 2015 between the Qimant
people and the regional administration is believed to have resulted in the
death of several community members of the Qimant people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">However, contrary to the people of Konso and Qucha, (and rather
uncharacteristic of the regime), the Qimant peoples’ demand for
self-administration was addressed in March 2015 when the Amhara Regional state
granted them a status of nationality and ruled that they can exercise self-administration.
According to the ruling, the Qimant have a right for self-administration in 42
Kebeles in the adjacent Armachiho and Chilga Districts. They can also enjoy the
full rights of developing their language as well as their culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">In north western Ethiopia, the simmering question of national identity
by the Wolkayit community has recently reached a new peak. In what’s largely
believed to be a forceful decision by the federal government, the Wolkayit
people are to stay under the Humera Zone of the Tigray regional state. It is a
decision that quashed the community’s two decades old demand to join the Amhara
regional state, as they identify themselves as Amharas. A few weeks into the
protest the people of Wolkayit were paraded in front of the national TV
carrying placards that declared all their questions, including their questions
of identity, as have been answered once and for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">But as the bumpy road continues to stretch from the North to the South
to the West (and seem to grow by frequency as well as magnitude) the first –
and perhaps most uncomfortable – step would be to probe if Ethiopia, where the
concept of “unity in diversity” avails itself for all to indulge on an equal
footing, was ever born in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Worry or not worry?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Ezekiel Gebissa, a Professor of History and African Studies at
Kettering University, argues that the constitutional federalism the incumbent
introduced doesn’t originally belong to it; it dates back to “the Ethiopian
student movement” of the early seventies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #777777; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">Prof. Ezekiel Gebissa</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">At the pinnacle of the student movement the question of national
identity took center stage, especially among the movement’s leaders such as
Walelign Mekonnen. Walelign’s prescription of self-administration up to
cessation for the politically marginalized became the rallying factor for the
would-be guerrilla fighters, who later defeated the Marxist Derg regime, Prof.
Ezekiel explains.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Although the Derge tried self-administration based on different regions
called ‘autonomous provinces’, it was a system that didn’t save the center from
an eventual collapse. With the coming to power in 1991 of the ruling EPRDF,
therefore, having constitutional federalism was not an option but a necessity,
according to Ezekiel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Tamrat Kebede, Executive Director of InterAfrica Group, a think tank,
agrees. In addition, he sees the country’s journey from an absolute
monarchy through military dictatorship to a constitutional federalism as “a
quantum jump”. He believes that with the coming into power of the EPRDF
questions of national identity and self-determination were put to the test for
the first time. Himself a former member of the seventies’ student movement,
Tamrat argues that as much as the questions were debated and discussed, the
approach was purely theoretical.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F1F1F1; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 5.25pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Tamrat Kebede<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Both Tamrat and Ezekiel find the government’s claims that the current
constitutional federalism has answered Ethiopia’s age-old questions as
exaggerated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">A careful look at the lingering cases of the Konso, Qucha, Wolkait and
Qimant reveal the uncanny similarity each community’s approaches share to put
their constitutionally guaranteed demands to the attention of the federal
government; they all invoked legal mechanisms enshrined in the structures of
the constitutional federalism. “The skeleton of the structure is in place. But
putting it into policy is one thing, implementing it is another,” Ezekiel says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">When the Konso people began to protest the demotion of their
administrative area from the status of Special District to a mere District,
they formed a representative committee to advance their demand for
self-administration and managed to collect signatures from more than 5% of the
community, well above the constitution’s requirement. The committee then
appealed to the Federal House of Federation here in Addis Abeba but the House
sent the people (and their questions) back to the regional government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Similarly the Qucha people, who are currently administered under the
Gamo Gofa zone of the SNNPR, say that they are not ethnic Gamos, as the current
arrangement dictates; they are their own nationality – Qucha. Qucha District,
which is home to the Qucha people, has close to 150, 000 people, according to
the 2007 national census.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">And a committee gathered to address the question by the Wolkait people
has written a letter on December 2015 to the House of Federation demanding
proper response to their question of identity. The committee says that the
Wolkait’s right to work and learn in their own language as well as their right
to promote and advance their culture have been suppressed in the past,
including the 20 plus years of the rule by the EPRDF.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">But these glitches do not make Tamrat of InterAfrica Group lose faith
in the constitutional federalism Ethiopia is following. In his interview with
this magazine Tamrat says practicing a complex federal system such as that of
Ethiopia’s will “inevitably run into enormous constraints and challenges.”
“[such a system] entails decentralization; it is sensitive; it requires
capacity, both in human terms and resource terms, which are not all readily
available when you launch into such a complex arrangement,” Tamrat said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Prof Ezekiel shares Tamrat’s view: adjusting the system itself as
needed, “requires a careful, thoughtful, deeply concerned implementation” he
says. But Ezekiel is critical because that never happened in the last two
decades. “The question that brought the very existence of Ethiopia into a
country was never fully answered”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The reason for this, according to Ezekiel, lies in the undemocratic
nature of the incumbent. Once in power the EPRDF “thought that they could do
whatever they want; they could engineer any outcome; they could muzzle dissent;
they could decimate opposition and tell the politically marginalized
nationalities on the highland and on the lowland that ‘you have a constitution,
your questions have been answered and you have no other question’”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">He believes that the questions raised now in different parts of the
country are indeed not “new questions”. “They are the same questions” he told
this magazine. However he doesn’t “believe for one minute that questioning the
very foundation of the federal arrangement is the answer. It is whether it
should be implemented or not.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Darkness before dawn?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Analysts who follow Ethiopia closely argue that recent incidents happening
in all corners of the country: the demands for economic justice,
self-administration and national identity are symptoms of a disease far deeper
than the current government dares to admit. Tamrat is one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">“These signs should force us to question what it is that we are not
doing right,” he says, “or why is this structure we have created to precisely
avoid these kinds of problems creating these problems? Could it be that we
issued rights that are not being exercised? Have we not prepared ourselves for
the manner in which they are to be exercised? That could very well be,” he
says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">For him the recognitions of the identity and equality of nationalities
as well as the rights to exercise self-administration up to the level of
cessation manifests “strong rights which demand fair resource sharing, fair
political participatory process, needless to say a democratic culture, in the
absence of [which] they are bound to erupt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Ethiopians’ questions of national identity and the demand for self-rule
are re-emerging frequently because they have never been answered in the right
way, argues Ezekiel. “Ethiopia is still a one party state” in which not only
its marginalized but also a great many are simply excluded from the political
process. And it is not just a theoretical exclusion, he said, “it is a
totalitarian control of the assets of the state to give permanency to the
exclusionary politics that the regime has put in place.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">The ruling party, Ezekiel further said, “uses the state resources to
co-opt the military, the security apparatus and the business class” to “create
a total hegemony of structure and discourse” and to “emasculate the very
constitution it celebrates.” The ruling party also puts an executive
manned by “ill-educated party cadres that simply parrot the leaders’
pronouncements without any understanding of the complexities of implementing
[federalism] policies.” The trajectory of this direction is one that’s “leading
to calamity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Ezekiel believes that the disastrous handling by the federal government
of almost all of these incidents (such as disarming regional police,
intervention without due parliamentary process, committing crimes with an
absolute sense of impunity and several other signs showing excessive control of
the federal government against these national regional states) show that the
party that likes to take total credit for creating Ethiopia’s constitutional
federalism is becoming the system’s enemy number one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Tamrat too shares Ezekiel’s concerns. The government’s ways of handling
public resentments, which include the application of excessive force, does not
manifest proper and competent handlings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Campaigners and activists say the recent widespread public protest in
Oromiya, which saw the federal army being quickly deployed, left more than 400
killed, twice that number injured, and thousands incarcerated. The federal army
roamed many of the streets where protests broke out; and the whereabouts of
hundreds of people remains unknown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Members of the Konso community said that several of their people,
including their leader, are incarcerated or have unjustly lost their jobs
following their demand for self-rule, although many of them were released since
the writing of this story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">According to a December 2015 letter addressed to the House of
Federation by a committee gathered to discuss the question of the Wolkait
people, there were about 116 people whose whereabouts were unknown because they
raised “a question of identity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Going to the
Qucha community in the South, in January 2015 the Gamo Area High Court has
sentenced 27 members of the community to up to 16 years imprisonment for
allegedly instigating violence and causing damage on people and properties
fourteen months earlier. According to the charges presented against them, they
were trying to operate illegally to forcefully obtain a status of nationality
for the Qucha community. And to advance their cause, the charges add, they
attacked residences of Kebele officials.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">For Tamrat, some of the challenges the country is
struggling with currently require an expanded political space, “to be debated,
to be discussed, to [bring forth] appropriate responses. I see a deficit in
that regard,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The government’s dogmatic obsession with the
constitution is another “often overlooked” aspect for Tamrat. For the
incumbent, the Constitution is non-debatable, fixed entity, probably because it
mistakenly equates “the Constitution for law and order. So whenever it says the
constitution [is beyond any discussion], it is actually saying that law and
order are [beyond any discussion].”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yet, the Constitution is an embodiment of a document
that entails the compromise of different views and it is not static, argues
Tamrat; it could be and should be amended when issues demand so. In fact “there
is a provision that stipulates its own amendment” because amendment was “an
envisaged process.” Article 104 clearly states the legality of “initiation of
Amendments.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Any proposal for constitutional amendment, if
supported by two-thirds majority vote in the House of Peoples’ Representatives,
or by a two-thirds majority vote in the House of the Federation or when
one-third of the State Councils of the member States of the Federation (by a
majority vote in each Council) have supported it, shall be submitted for
discussion and decision to the general public and to those whom the amendment
of the Constitution concerns,” the Article reads.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A change towards democracy is a must if the country is
to avoid regrettable tragedy, Ezekiel says. “People at the top of the
government must know that the<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #666666;"> </span></b></span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b><span style="color: #aaaaaa;">status quo</span></b></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #666666;"> </span></b></span>is not sustainable”, he argues,
“because there is too much discontent, too much dissatisfaction, a lot of
desperation, a lot of deprivation,” Ezekiel said, adding that the government
must stop listening to the reverberation of its own voices and understand that
this is not a sustainable path.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“It should begin by decriminalizing dissent, open up
the political space, expunge the draconian laws that are muzzling the press,
start from the freedom of the press, release political prisoners. These are the
measures the government could take in order to win the good will of the
public,” Ezekiel said. “This is not an option, this is an imperative. The
window will close sooner or later. But, would the government be able to see
that? Well, I always say absolute power dements more than it corrupts.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #993300; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">No turning back</span></strong></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #993300; font-size: 14.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Several Ethiopian critics of the government assert
that the fundamental problem of the recent conflicts that besieged several
areas is the constitutional federalism itself. According to these critics, it
focuses more on differences than unity. Some fear it may even lead to an
eventual disintegration of the country. A return to the old unitary system of
administration is an idea whose appeal seems to gain increasing popularity
among many Ethiopians<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #666666; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #666666;"> </span></b></span>But it is an idea both Tamrat and
Ezekiel strongly disagree with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“The [current] federal arrangement was a response to a
historic question of nationalities,” Ezekiel says, “to deny that there is a
question of nationalities is to deny the sun rises in the East.” The country,
according to him, has tried the unitarists as well as the assimilationists
track for decades and it actually led to “proliferation of centrifugal forces”.
Thus, “the claim that says we need a unitary state is a flight of fancy that
collides with reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Tamrat adds “a unitary government has not yielded the
desired, harmonious and peaceful relationship. We can’t go back to a unitary
system that’s held by force. We have travelled enough distance in this federal
system in which national senses of identities have taken a right recognition
and it is this right recognition which is manifesting itself as demands of
right.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But back in the power corridors of the government in
Ethiopia exhausting propaganda is being relentlessly produced and aired through
state affiliated media claiming that the federal arrangement not only answered
the ‘national question’ but also put the burning question of land ownership,
and the nation’s quest for self-rule, which saw the previous two regimes
toppled by the will of the people, to their final resting place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But to put Ezekiel’s words in this context, this one
too seems “a flight of fancy that collides with reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-75173332348172146242016-04-23T20:51:00.000+02:002016-04-23T21:07:14.481+02:00U.S. Senators Speak Loud and Clear: Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia Must Stop! <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Prof. Al Mariam </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
April 23, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: NO-BOK;">Last July, Barak Obama visited Ethiopia and declared the ruling
Thugtatoship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) regime a
“democratic government.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The T-TPLF claimed with a straight face that it
had won the 2015 “election” by 100 percent or all 547 seats in “parliament”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The New York Times called it a “sham”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Human Rights Watch called Obama’s statement
“shocking”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/08/02/barack-obama-tell-the-truth-about-ethiopia/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> called</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> it a low down dirty shame.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">On April 20, 2016, Senators Ben Cardin
(D-Maryland), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Patty Murry (D-WA), Ed Markey (D-MA),
Chris Coons (D-DE), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Al Franken
(D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Marco Rubio (R-FL)
sponsored a Resolution condemning the crimes against humanity being
committed by the T-TPLF in Ethiopia today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Well, they did not exactly use the phrase “crimes
against humanity.” But that was exactly what they meant in their Resolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Senator Cardin commenting on his introduction
of the Supporting Respect for Human Rights and Encouraging Inclusive
Governance in Ethiopia </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/cardin-rubio-colleagues-condemn-ethiopias-crackdown-on-civil-society-" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I am shocked by the brutal actions of the
Ethiopian security forces, and offer condolences to the families of those who
have been killed. The Ethiopian constitution affords its citizens the
right to peaceful assembly and such actions by Ethiopian government forces are
unacceptable. The government’s heavy-handed tactics against journalists and use
of the 2009 Anti-Terrorism and Charities and Societies Proclamations to stifle
free speech and legitimate political dissent demonstrate a troubling lack of
respect for democratic freedoms and human rights. Given the challenges posed by
the devastating drought and border insecurity, it is more important than ever
that the government take actions to unify rather than alienate its people. It
is critical that the government of Ethiopia respect fundamental human rights if
it is to meet those challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Senator Rubio </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/cardin-rubio-colleagues-condemn-ethiopias-crackdown-on-civil-society-" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">echoed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> the same sentiment:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Peaceful protestors and activists have been
arrested, tortured and killed in Ethiopia for simply exercising their basic
rights. I condemn these abuses and the Ethiopian government’s stunning
disregard for the fundamental rights of the Ethiopian people. I urge the Obama
Administration to prioritize respect for human rights and political reforms in
the U.S. relationship with Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Obama turned a deaf ear to Senator Rubio’s plea.
To add insult to injury, Obama stood up in Addis Ababa and shamelessly declared
the T-TPLF is a “democratic government”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is to be recalled that Senator Rubio wrote
a </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=0ef69e42-7157-430d-90b7-86a9baa28c55" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">letter</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> to Obama a few days before Obama visited
Ethiopia in July 2015 “highlighting” his “concerns regarding ongoing human
rights abuses by the Ethiopian government against its own people.” Senator
Rubio warned in his letter:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Although the United States and Ethiopia share an
interest in fighting terrorism and securing stability through the region, it is
essential that the U.S. does not turn a blind eye to Ethiopia’s human rights
abuses. By shutting down avenues to express dissent through the political
process, civil society, or media, Ethiopia’s government may fuel further
instability in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Brutality by government forces is a crime against
humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/syria-crisis-un-idUSL2E8J358N20120803" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">, “The acts of brutality [by the Syrian
government] that are being reported may constitute crimes against humanity or
war crimes. Such acts must be investigated and the perpetrators held to
account.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">That is exactly what the U.S. Senators are saying
and calling for in their Resolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate Resolution states in plain words that
crimes against humanity have been committed in Ethiopia under T-TPLF rule and
there must be “a full, credible, and transparent investigation into the
killings and instances of excessive use of force that took place as a result of
protests in the Oromia region and hold security forces accountable for
wrongdoing through public proceedings.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">But the Resolution goes well beyond a simple
statement of disapproval and criticism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I believe the Resolution represents the senators’
sentiments, views and positions on four distinct issues. The Resolution 1)
totally condemns T-TPLF’s crimes against humanity, 2) expresses
impatience and dissatisfaction with the Obama Administration’s do-nothing
about human rights approach in Ethiopia, 3) demands direct policy action by the
U.S. Secretary of State to secure improvements in the human rights
situation in Ethiopia or to review use of US aid as leverage, and 4) serves
clear notice to USAID to undertake programs and activities that could help
improve human rights and democratization in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The catalog of T-TPLF
crimes against humanity in the Resolution</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I believe the first part of the Resolution, for
all intents and purposes represents, amounts to a legislative “indictment”
against the T-TPLF for crimes against humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate Resolution declares that T-TPLF has:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Engaged in “serious human rights violations,
including arbitrary arrests, killings, and torture committed by security forces
as well as restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of association,
politically motivated trials, harassment, and intimidation of opposition
members and journalists.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Engaged in “state sponsored violence against those
exercising their rights to peaceful assembly in Oromia and elsewhere in the
country, and the abuse of laws to stifle journalistic freedoms, stand in direct
contrast to democratic principles and in violation of Ethiopia’s constitution”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Caused “democratic space in Ethiopia [to] steadily
diminish since the general elections of 2005”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Rigged elections and claimed to have won “100
percent of parliamentary seats”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Abused a so-called “Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to
limit press freedom, silence independent journalists, and persecute members of
the political opposition.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Restricted and virtually stamped out “civil
society and nongovernmental organizations, particularly those investigating
alleged violations of human rights by governmental authorities”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Persecuted and prosecuted journalists and bloggers
and created a climate of fear and “coercive environment” for the press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Killed “at least 200 peaceful protesters in the
Oromia region and that number is likely higher.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Condemnation of the T-TPLF
regime in the Resolution</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate Resolution without reservation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Condemns (A) killings of peaceful protesters and
excessive use of force by [T-TPLF] security forces; (B) [T-TPLF] arrest and
detention of journalists, students, activists and political leaders who
exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression
through peaceful protests; and (C) [T-TPLF] abuse of the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation to stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic freedoms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Call for T-TPLF Action in
the Resolution</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate Resolution makes specific demands on
the T-TPLF:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Halt the use of excessive force by security
forces;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Conduct a full, credible, and transparent
investigation into the killings and instances of excessive use of force
that took place as a result of protests in the Oromia region and hold
security forces accountable for wrongdoing through public proceedings;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Release dissidents, activists, and journalists
who have been jailed, including those arrested for reporting about the
protests, for exercising constitutional rights;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Respect the right to freedom of peaceful
assembly and guarantee freedom of the press and mass media in keeping with
Articles 30 and 29 of the Ethiopian constitution;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Engage in open and transparent consultations
relative to its development strategy, especially those strategies that
could result in people’s displacement from land;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Repeal proclamations that can be used as a
political tool to harass or prohibit funding for civil society
organizations that investigate human rights violations, engage in peaceful
political dissent, or advocate for greater political freedoms;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Repeal proclamations that prohibit or
otherwise limit those displaced from their land from seeking remedy or
redress in courts, or that do not provide a transparent, accessible means
to access justice for those displaced.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Step up”: The Obama
Administration’s must abandon its do-nothing policy to improve human rights in
Ethiopia </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Resolution diplomatically intimates that the
Obama Administration has done little or nothing to help improve the human
rights situation in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Stripped off the diplomatic euphemism, the
Resolution asserts the Obama administration has been talking the human rights
talk in Ethiopia but unwilling to walk the human rights talk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Resolution declares that Obama got T-TPLF
leaders to “commit” to “deepen the democratic process and work towards the
respect of human rights and improving governance” in July 2015, but the
outcome since has been massacres and more repression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Resolution calls on the Obama Administration
to “review of security assistance to Ethiopia in light of recent developments
and to improve transparency with respect to the purposes of such assistance to
the people of Ethiopia”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Resolution further “calls on the Secretary of
State [and] the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, to improve oversight and accountability of United States
assistance to Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Senate Affirmation of Respect
for Human Rights in Ethiopia</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate Resolution affirms that the U.S. Senate
“stands by the people of Ethiopia, and supports their peaceful efforts to
increase democratic space and to exercise the rights guaranteed by the
Ethiopian constitution.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">What Does the Resolution
Really Mean?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is important to note that the Senate Resolution
(“simple resolution) is a legislative act intended to signify the Senate’s
“sense” of what is happening in Ethiopia and what needs to be done. (See Senate
Rule 30, adopted 2/4/15.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">When the Senate seeks to state its views,
opinions and position, make a point or send a warning on an issue of
importance, it employs a simple resolution to get its message across. The
Senate Resolution on Ethiopia aims to express the opinion of a majority of
Senators.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is also important to understand simple
resolutions, unlike regular “bills” and “resolutions” do not have the force or
effect of law nor do they require presidential signature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">So, a reasonable question is why bothered to pass
a “simple resolution”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Though simple resolutions do not have the binding
effect of law, they serve some important purposes. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">They are used by
either house of Congress to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Go on record and take a position on a
particular issue and express support or opposition for a particular
action, policy, proposal, idea, plan, program, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Generate preliminary support or opposition
among members for an intended or anticipated action and build momentum;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Serve notice to the President that the Senate
or House are contemplating imminent action on a particular issue and urge
executive corrective action obviating the need for more formal legislative
action.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Notify U.S. departments and agencies and
foreign governments that the U.S. Congress is watching a specific issue
with special attention and concern.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Communicate a specific message in foreign
affairs (to foreign leaders) that a certain state of affairs in a
particular country or region is unacceptable to the people of the United
States and that legislative actions could follow if the circumstances
persist;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Apply subtle pressure on foreign governments
to make changes in policy.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Signify a change in policy or possible
forthcoming legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Signify the possibility of public hearings.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The bottom line is that Senate resolutions are
taken very seriously by most foreign governments and agencies and department of
the U.S. Government. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the T-TPLF ignoramuses
will chafe and ignore it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Faced with a similar legislative situation in
2007, Meles Zenawi, the late leader of the T-TPLF, angrily and
sarcastically </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072000399_pf.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">lashed
out</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> at Congress at the U.S.
Congress: “The Ethiopian government isn’t willing and is unable to be run
like a banana republic from Capitol Hill or anywhere else.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In 2009, I demonstrated that Meles’ government was
quite willing to be treated like a “</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2009/06/10/inside-the-barley-republic/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">barley
republic</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> from Jeddah or any
of the other Gulf states.” At the time, Zenawi was handing out millions of
acres of Ethiopian land to so-called Saudi and Gulf “investors”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the Ethiopia Senate Resolution, there is little
doubt that the T-TPLF will pay special attention. I do not doubt that the
T-TPLF is consulting its Big Bucks lobbyist on what to do to nip the resolution
in the bud. The T-TPLF has learned from the past (Remember </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.congress.gov/110/bills/hr2003/BILLS-110hr2003rfs.pdf" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">H.R.
2003</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">) that if it pays its
lobbyists USD $50,000 a month it could stop cold any legislation in the U.S.
Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Demand for USAID
Accountability in the Senate Resolution</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">My readers will recall my </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2016/04/10/usaid-and-famine-in-ethiopia-what-does-gayle-e-smith-have-to-say/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">letter</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> to USAID Administrator Gayle E. Smith dated
March 16, 2016, in which I demanded accountability and transparency in USAID
administration of American aid in Ethiopia. I asked Ms. Smith:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">What safeguards, if any, are in place to ensure
the ruling regime will not put any of the $500 million to political purposes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">What accountability processes are in place to
ensure the prevention of corruption in the administration of the aforementioned
assistance in Ethiopia? How much of the $500 million is provided to the ruling
regime in Ethiopia in the form of discretionary or non-discretionary
expenditures?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I am glad to see the April 20, 2016 Senate
Resolution makes a similar demand by </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">call[ing] on the Secretary of State, in
conjunction with the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development, to improve oversight and accountability of
United States assistance to Ethiopia pursuant to expectations established in
the President’s 2012 Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Unanswered Questions</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">There are many who ask myriad questions about the
Senate Resolution. Why now? Where have they been all these years? Does the
resolution mean the Senate has something “up its sleeve”? Is it just rhetoric?
What is going to happen next? Is the Senate really serious about human rights
violations in Ethiopia? Should Ethiopians be hopeful the resolution will
produce immediate improvements in the human rights situation in Ethiopia? Will
the Senate resolution end up being just talk and no action? And on and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is hard to give definitive answers to these
questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The U.S. legislative process is very complex
requiring bicameral action to enact legislation subject to presidential veto.
The American legislative system is structurally designed to function in a slow
and deliberate process subject to constitutional and internal legislative
rules.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">We have learned firsthand how a bill to promote
human rights and democracy could be subjected to massive lobbying efforts to
defeat it when we worked to pass H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and
Accountability Act).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Regardless, I am not concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I wholeheartedly agree with Thomas Payne, one of
the Founding Fathers of the United States, who said in a speech on December 23,
1776:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet
we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is
dearness only that gives everything its value… I love the man that can smile in
trouble that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I am smiling! </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-66463192866633542342016-04-23T17:24:00.000+02:002016-04-23T19:58:40.929+02:00 Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By U.S. Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
April 22, 2016<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">114TH CONGRESS </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2D SESSION S. RES. ll</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Supporting
respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia. </span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED
STATES<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Mr. CARDIN
(for himself, Ms. CANTWELL, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. COONS, Mr. MENENDEZ,
Mr. LEAHY, Mr. FRANKEN, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. RUBIO) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on --------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">RESOLUTION<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Supporting
respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive governance in Ethiopia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the first pillar of the 2012 United States
Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa is to strengthen democratic institutions,
and the United States Agency for International Development Democracy, Human
Rights, and Governance Strategy states that strong democratic institutions,
respect for human rights, and participatory, accountable governance are crucial
elements for improving people’s lives in a sustainable way; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the third pillar of the 2012 United States
Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa is to advance peace and security, including
supporting security sector reform; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas democratic space in Ethiopia has steadily
diminished since the general elections of 2005; </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas elections were held in
2015 in which the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front
claimed 100 percent of parliamentary seats; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the 2014 Department of State Human Rights
Report on Ethiopia cited serious human rights violations, including arbitrary
arrests, killings, and torture committed by security forces as well as
restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of association, politically
motivated trials, harassment, and intimidation of opposition members and
journalists; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the Government of Ethiopia has repeatedly
abused laws such as the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to limit press
freedom, silence independent journalists, and persecute members of the
political opposition; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas laws such as the 2009 Charities and Societies
Proclamation have been used to restrict the operation of civil society and
nongovernmental organizations in Ethiopia across a range of purposes,
particularly those investigating alleged violations of human rights by
governmental authorities; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the case of the ‘‘Zone 9 Bloggers’’, whose
arrest, detention, and trials on terrorism charges brought international
attention to the restrictions on press freedom in Ethiopia, is indicative of
the coercive environment in which journalists operate; </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the Ethiopian
Human Rights Council reports at least 102 protestor deaths, and according to
Human Rights Watch, Ethiopian security forces have killed at least 200 peaceful
protestors in the Oromia region, and that number is likely higher; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas state sponsored violence against those
exercising their rights to peaceful assembly in Oromia and elsewhere in the
country, and the abuse of laws to stifle journalistic freedoms, stand in direct
contrast to democratic principles and in violation of Ethiopia’s constitution;
and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas, during President Barack Obama’s historic
visit to Addis Ababa in July 2015, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressed
his government’s commitment to deepen the democratic process and work towards
the respect of human rights and improving governance, and noted the need to
step up efforts to strengthen institutions: Now, therefore be it Resolved, That
the Senate— <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(1)<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">condemns— <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -21.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(A)<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">killings of peaceful protesters and excessive use of
force by Ethiopian security forces; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -21.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(B)<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">arrest
and detention of journalists, students, activists and political leaders who
exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression through
peaceful protests; and <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -20.7pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(C) abuse of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to stifle
political and civil dissent and journalistic freedoms; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (2) urges
protesters in Ethiopia to refrain from violence;
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (3) calls on the Government of Ethiopia—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(A) to halt the use of excessive force by security
forces; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(B) to conduct a full, credible, and transparent
investigation into the killings and instances of excessive use of force that
took place as a result of protests in the Oromia region and hold security forces
accountable for wrongdoing through public proceedings;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(C) to release dissidents, activists, and journalists
who have been jailed, including those arrested for reporting about the
protests, for exercising constitutional
rights;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(D) to respect the right to freedom of peaceful
assembly and guarantee freedom of the press and mass media in keeping with
Articles 30 and 29 of the Ethiopian constitution;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(E) to engage in open and transparent consultations relative to its development
strategy, especially those strategies that could result in people’s
displacement from land; and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(F) to repeal proclamations that <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">i) can be used as a political tool to harass or prohibit
funding for civil society organizations that investigate human rights violations,
engage in peaceful political dissent, or advocate for greater political
freedoms; or<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ii) prohibit or otherwise limit those displaced from
their land from seeking remedy or redress in courts, or that do not provide a
transparent, accessible means to access justice
for those displaced; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(4) calls on the Secretary of State to conduct a
review of security assistance to Ethiopia in light of recent developments and
to improve transparency with respect to
the purposes of such assistance to the people of Ethiopia; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(5) calls on the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Development to immediately lead efforts to develop a
comprehensive strategy to support improved democracy and governance in
Ethiopia; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(6) calls on the Secretary of State, in conjunction
with the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, to improve oversight and accountability of United States assistance
to Ethiopia pursuant to expectations established in the President’s 2012
Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa; and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(7) stands by the people of Ethiopia, and supports
their peaceful efforts to increase democratic space and to exercise the rights
guaranteed by the Ethiopian constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-2561906862657424692016-04-22T16:06:00.000+02:002016-04-22T16:06:38.924+02:00 Press Statement by the Ethiopian People's Congress for United Struggle (Shengo)<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">April 22, 2016 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Following the European Parliament’s Resolution of January 21, 2016 on
the situation in Ethiopia “strongly condemning the recent use of excessive
force in Oromia and in all Ethiopian regions,” Shengo expressed its
appreciation to the EU and called upon the Congress of the United States to
take a similar stand. In this regard, we recognize the concerted and relentless
campaign made by Ethiopian civil society, political, spiritual and professional
groups as well as individuals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The United States Senate Resolution “supporting respect for human rights
and encouraging inclusive governance” in Ethiopia could not have come at a most
opportune and critical time in Ethiopia’s long history. In particular, we note
with appreciation that the Senate “condemns killings of peaceful protestors and
excessive use of force by Ethiopian Security forces, the arrest and detention
of journalists, students, activists and political leaders, and the abuse of the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic
freedom.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shengo has been calling on the government of Ethiopia to release all
political prisoners, desist from forcible evictions of indigenous people from
their lands and repeal the draconian 2009 Anti-Terrorism and Charities and
Societies Proclamations that have been used as blunt instruments to punish
dissidents and to degrade civil society. We are encouraged by the Senate’s call
on the government of Ethiopia to “refrain from violence (state, our emphasis),
halt the use of excessive force by security forces and conduct a full,
credible, and transparent investigation into killings that took place in
Oromia, and hold security forces accountable for wrong doing through public
proceedings, repeal proclamations that are used as political tools to harass or
prohibit funding for civil society organizations.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We are especially encouraged by the Senate’s “Call on the Secretary of
State to conduct a review of security assistance to Ethiopia.” Ethiopian civic,
political groups, academic and professional groups have questioned repeatedly
the wisdom of providing American security assistance to a state and government
that uses these tools to punish its own people with impunity. Equally, we are
encouraged by the prospect that USAID “would advance democracy and governance”
and apply due diligence and oversight in the provision of both humanitarian and
development assistance. The government of Ethiopia continues to deny food and
other forms of humanitarian assistance to potential dissidents and non-party
members. It also restricts official development assistance on the basis of
political and ethnic loyalty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Last but not least, Shengo is enormously gratified by
the resolution that the Senate “stands by the people of Ethiopia, and supports
their peaceful efforts to increase democratic space.” Together, we have a
golden opportunity to leverage the resolutions of the two most significant
donors and diplomatic supporters to the Ethiopian regime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-64329539332400508172016-04-19T22:51:00.001+02:002016-04-19T22:51:08.084+02:00USAID Hunger Games in Ethiopia<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 11.25pt 0cm 3.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">Posted in </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://almariam.com/category/al-mariam-commentaries/"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Al Mariam's Commentaries</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"> By </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://almariam.com/author/almariam/" title="Posts by almariam"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">almariam</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"> On April 17, 2016</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">Hunger or famine games in Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">USAID says there is no
famine in Ethiopia, only hunger (a/k/a “severe malnutrition”, “food
insecurity”, “food scarcity”, “food insufficiency”, “food deprivation”, “severe
food shortages”, “chronic dietary deficiency”, “endemic malnutrition”, etc.)
caused by El Nino drought.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I say there is famine, as in <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">F-A-M-I-N-E</span></b>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In countless
commentaries over the past 8 years, I have called attention to the occurrence,
recurrence and flareup of famine in different parts of Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Is there or is
there not famine in Ethiopia in April 2016?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The only
people in Ethiopia who could answer that question are the people who are facing
the Black Horseman of the Apocalypse straight in the eye.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">They have
spoken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The people of
Tigray have told USAID they are facing FAMINE as never before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">A couple of weeks ago, the people of Tigray </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://ethiopia.usembassy.gov/jeremy-konydnyk.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">told</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> Jeremy Konyndyk,
Director, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance that they are
teetering on the verge of total collapse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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id="Bilde_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Konyndyk"
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o:title="Konyndyk"/>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk
summarized what the people of Tigray told him:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">drought is massive</span></b>.
It is the <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">worst drought in 50 years</span></b> in
most of this country… When we were out in Tigray yesterday we spoke with many
people living in communities there who told us <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">this was
the worst drought they had ever seen in their lives — worse in many cases than
the conditions that their areas had seen in 1983, 1984</span></b>. And
yet we also know that the outcomes of this drought don’t need to look like the
outcomes in 1984…” (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">What were the
“outcomes” in 1984?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In 1984, 32 years ago, Ethiopians in Tigray region
and other parts of northern Ethiopia faced “</span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">biblical
famine</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today even
though the people of Tigray are telling Konyndyk and USAID that they are facing
“the worst drought they had ever seen in their lives” and by Konyndyk’s
admission is the “worst drought in 50 years, Konyndyk and USAID adamantly
refuse to use the “F”amine word to describe their catastrophic condition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Is Konyndyk
willfully ignorant or simply turning a deaf ear to the people of Tigray?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">There is no
question Konyndyk would have heard the same story if he had visited various
parts of Oromia, Afar, Amhara and SNNPR regions devastated by the
“drought”/famine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Frankly, I do
not know why Konyndyk did not go to the other regions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Perhaps the
T-TPLF would not allow Konyndyk to go to the other regions. The T-TPLF
probably thought Konyndyk would go to Tigray, listen to the T-TPLF line
about “very severe malnutrition”, do a photo op and come back and do a press
conference at the “5 star” Marriott Hotel in Addis Ababa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">But the people of Tigray would not lie for the
T-TPLF by saying they are facing “very severe malnutrition”. </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> They told him the
real deal. They ARE suffering from biblical FAMINE!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Wouldn’t it
make sense for Konyndyk, the chief U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, to visit
at least a couple of the other regions as part of a more complete
fact-gathering effort?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Perhaps
Konyndyk did not bother to go to the other regions because he believed that if
you have seen one “drought”/famine, you’ve seen ‘em all!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk
and USAID talk about DROUGHT, DROUGHT, DROUGHT…?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">But they never ask and answer in public the
logical next question: What are the effects and consequences of DROUGHT?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk
glossed over the question in his interview. He just said the “outcomes of this
[2016] drought don’t need to look like the outcomes in 1984.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What exactly
were the “outcomes” of the “drought” in 1984?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk says
Ethiopia is facing “massive drought” today, the worst in 50 years!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">A massive drought in 1984-85 caused
massive famine in Ethiopia. But Konyndyk wants us to believe a massive drought
in 2016 is just a massive drought?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Oh! What a
tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">There was a
time when USAID used to be able to tell the truth about drought/famine in
Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">That was three
decades ago! How time flies and the Big Lie flies with time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID in its “Final Disaster </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABG233.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Report</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">: Ethiopia Drought/
Famine, FY 1985-1986” (p. iii) told it like it was:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In 1984, the world came to know, through the <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">nightly television news broadcasts</span></b>, the tragic plight
of the famine victims in Ethiopia. By the end of 1984, with <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">nearly 8 million people In Ethiopia considered at risk of death
due to starvation</span></b>, appeals were made for 1.3 million metric tons of
food, in addition to millions of dollars in other emergency relief supplies.
The response was tremendous. (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In April 2016,
Konyndyk says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">It is the worst drought in 50 years in most of
this country… The figure, the estimate of the people in need of relief are
about, well <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">they exceed 10 million and that’s the current
projections</span></b>. We expect that the period over the summer will be
the worst period…” (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Even though
Ethiopia is in “the worst drought in 50 years”, Konyndyk gags and chokes
as he tries to utter the “F”amine word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">“How
inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! How horrible is it to be a
mischievous and malignant hypocrite?”, quizzically ruminated Voltaire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">How come the world does not see on “nightly
television news broadcasts” bloated and emaciated Ethiopian children ravaged by
famine?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The answer is
simple: The T-TPLF has stonewalled and sandbagged all information from the
famine-stricken areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Any journalist
who reports from the famine-stricken areas will be charged under the T-TPLF’s
bogus “anti-terrorism” law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">But it is not
only journalists who are gagged and censored by the T-TPLF.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The T-TPLF has also delivered stern </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201512021973.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">warnings </span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> and threats to
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that if they use the “F”amine or
“S”tarvation words or phrases like “children are dying on a daily basis,” “the
policies of the government in Ethiopia are partially to blame” in their public
statements, they will be kicked out on their tails before they can say
Jack!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">When will we
begin to see a few smuggled photos of bloated and emaciated Ethiopian children
famine victims on “nightly television news broadcasts”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Simple. As
soon as the T-TPLF allows the international media free access to the
famine-stricken areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk would
have done American taxpayers a great service if he had brought along with him
international journalists to visit Tigray region and other parts of the country
to freely report on the famine/”drought”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">Is it too much to ask that USAID operate with
minimal transparency in a country where it claims to be the Second Coming?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk sat at the Addis Ababa “5-star” Marriott
and fielded softball questions from representatives of international media: (<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">How ironic! Talking about starving people hanging out at a “5 star
hotel”? WOW!!!</span></b>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">Paul Shem
(Associated Press/ Washington Post): “A lot of aid agencies were saying about a
month or two ago that there’s a chance of the food pipeline breaking down… ?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk: “On the food pipeline issue… We’ve also
been talking with the Ethiopian government who are very keen to avoid that… <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">I’ll defer to them</span></b> on what their plans would be
for covering any break [in the pipeline]…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Really!?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Eskinder (VOA
Horn of Africa Service): “I see here that the HRD [Humanitarian Requirements
Document] will be updated by the Ethiopian government and its partners.
Does this mean that, we already know that there are 10.2 million people in need
of emergency food assistance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk: “We’re still, <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">ultimately the [Ethiopian] government sets that number</span></b> and
we’re <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">supporting the government</span></b> in that process.”
Really?!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Just like
USAID supported the propagation of the bogus 10 percent annual economic growth
figure fabricated by the “government”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Andualem Sisay
(National Media Group): “My question is about lasting solution for such
humanitarian crisis. We’ve been in such a situation every three and four
or five years, so what is your suggestion for a lasting solution to such
crises?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk: “That’s a great and a really important
question… [T]his is not an every four or five-year drought. This is
an every 50 years drought… This is an extraordinarily strong global El
Nino… <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Ethiopia so far has had some of the most
severe weather impacts of that</span></b>, but southern Africa is suffering
quite a lot as well now.” (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Really!?
Ethiopia is El Nino’s chosen one this time around?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">By the way, USAID knows how to synchronize talking
points. USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said exactly the same thing in a recent </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://m.state.gov/md253954.htm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">interview</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">: “This phenomenon called
El Nino, [ ] is striking hard at a number of parts of the world, [but] <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">nowhere harder than in Ethiopia</span></b>.” (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">They all
babble from the same talking points!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why can’t the
various members of the international media go out in the drought/famine
affected areas and report on their own?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why must they
be spoon-fed information sitting comfortably at a “5-star hotel”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk sits
at the “5-star” Addis Ababa Mariott and showers his agency, the T-TPLF, the
U.N. and the other partners with self-serving commendations and complements on
a job well done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Re: the
T-TPLF, Konyndyk says, “I want to convey our thanks at the top to the
government of Ethiopia for hosting a very useful visit and for the broader
partnership that we’ve had together for many many years and the strong
partnership that we have together on this response to the drought.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Many, many
years and the strong partnership” with the T-TPLF!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I am cool with
that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Barack Obama visited Ethiopia in July 2015 and
declared the ruling T-TPLF regime (the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean
People’s Liberation Front, an organization currently classified as a terrorist
group by the </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?perpetrator=2127"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Global Terrorism Database</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">, which claimed
to have won the May 2015 parliamentary elektion by 100 percent) “democratic”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">I guess that’s
what strong partners do for each other. Lie through the teeth for each other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">If Barack Obama can stand in front of the world
and call the T-TPLF democratic, no one should be surprised when Konyndyk
stands in front of the world and denies there is FAMINE in Ethiopia.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">There is an
old Ethiopian saying, “Fish stinks from the head.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Konyndyk
acknowledges, “Thanks as well to our partners from the United Nations and the
NGO community who are doing really tremendous and heroic work supporting the
response to this drought.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Wouldn’t these
words sound more convincing if they were said by the international media?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID says the
cause of “hunger” (a/k/a “very severe malnutrition”, etc.) in Ethiopia is
drought caused by “El Nino” (warming of the ocean surface resulting in a shift
in atmospheric circulation and reduced rainfall).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Not only is El Nino the cause, it seems, if one is
to believe USAID Adminstrator Gayle E.</span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://m.state.gov/md253954.htm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Smith </span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">, El Nino is sent by
Providence to punish Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I was so incensed by Smith’s nonsensical statement
that I wrote a </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2016/04/10/usaid-and-famine-in-ethiopia-what-does-gayle-e-smith-have-to-say/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">letter</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> asking her why she thought Ethiopia was
singled out by El Nino and struck harder than any other country on the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I also asked
Smith if she believed poor governance, lack of planning and organization by the
T-TPLF is an actual cause or at least a partial proximate cause for the
“drought”, or at least an aggravating factor in the causation, spread and/or
persistence of the current “drought” in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Smith passed my letter off to her assistant
administrator to respond. In his letter, the assistant administrator tried to </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/USAID-T-C-Copper-Letter.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">finesse</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> me with bureaucratic
mumbo jumbo: “First, we acknowledge that food shortages and livestock losses
related to the drought are having a direct and significant impact on people’s
ability to thrive.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">What happens
to people who cannot “thrive” because they have absolutely nothing to eat?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">I say the root cause of the persistence of famine
in Ethiopia is the depraved indifference of “El T-TPLF”.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">El T-TPLF
has been in the saddle of power in Ethiopia for the last 25 years. In May
2015 El T-TPLF claimed to have won 100 percent of the seats in “parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In 2010, El
T-TPLF claimed to have won 99.6 percent of the seats in “parliament”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">El T-TPLF has
been in total control of Ethiopia for the past 6 years after rigging elections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What has the
T-TPLF done to prevent “very severe malnutrition” in Ethiopia over the past 6
years?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Not a doggone
thing!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What has the
T-TPLF done to deal with the effects of a “very severe malnutrition”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Not a doggone
thing!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What the T-TPLF
has done is siphon off humanitarian aid and spirit it out of the country into
its off shore accounts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What the
T-TPLF has done is stretch out its begging bowls year after year for
international alms and handouts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I guess not much more could be expected from
Africa’s premier </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2014/10/12/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-baksheesh-state-in-ethiopia/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Baksheesh (Beggar) State</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">USAID and T-TPLF in Denial-istan, Ethiopia</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The T-TPLF and
USAID have entered into a silent conspiracy of famine denial in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">They give
self-congratulatory and self-laudatory interviews from Denial-istan, Ethiopia
and expect the world to buy their lies, damned lies and statistics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The T-TPLF (the
“LF” in T-TPLF stands for “Lie Factory”) has been denying the occurrence of
famine for at least eight years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">When the
T-TPLF leaders were in the bush, famine was the all-important issue and topic.
They claimed famine alleviation and prevention is their be-all and end all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In 1985 when hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians
were dying of famine, the late Meles Zenawi </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTPWp0eYzyQ"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">There is no point in fighting if the people are
finished. This is the saddest time in my life. I have seen many desperate
times. But none of them is as desperate as this one. <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Because the people I am fighting for are dying because of lack of
food.</span></b> They are hardworking but because of lack of support,
because of lack of scientific agricultural practices these people are dying.
Because of no fault of themselves. That is the toughest thing for a fighter to
face. (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Yeah, right! In 1984-86, Meles and his crew
siphoned off tens of millions of dollars earmarked for famine relief in the
Tigray region to buy weapons and enrich themselves. Read all about it in
my </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ethiopia-licensed-to-stea_b_489516.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">commentary</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> “TPLF Licensed
to Steal”. That’s what I call easy money for a “tough fighter”.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In August 2008, 17 years after sitting in power,
Meles Zenawi waxed philosophical telling </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7665826.stm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Time
Magazine</span></a></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> “Famine has wreaked havoc in Ethiopia for so
long, it would be stupid not to be sensitive to the risk of such things
occurring. But there has not been a famine on our watch — emergencies, but
no famines.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Meles Zenawi’s “Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development”, Mitiku Kassa, </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ethiopias-silently-creepi_b_418068.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">echoed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> his boss stating, “In the Ethiopian
context, there is no hunger, no famine… It is baseless [to claim famine],
it is contrary to the situation on the ground. It is not evidence-based. The
government is taking action to mitigate the problems.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In 2011, Meles Zenawi pompously </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.ethiopian-news.com/ethiopia-wont-need-food-aid-after-2015-meles/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">declared</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">, “<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">We have devised a plan which will enable us to produce surplus and
be able to feed ourselves by 2015 without the need for food aid</span></b>.” In
other words, famine, starvation, severe malnutrition, etc. will be banned from
Ethiopia for eternity!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In January 2012, CNN </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph4RCc0h9bk"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">asked</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> Meles Zenawi:
“Ethiopia is facing a major famine. How can you justify spending on a military
operation in another country when your own people are starving?” Zenawi
responded, “There is no famine in Ethiopia as all humanitarian organizations
will tell you. <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">There is a serious drought, but we are able to
keep our people fed</span></b>….”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In June 2012, USAID </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/frontlines/child-survival-ethiopia-edition/catching-ethiopians-they-fall"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">reported</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The drought
was considered in some parts of the region to be one of the worst in 60 years,
affecting more than 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa. The month before
the official drought declaration, USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network
(FEWS NET) warned: ‘This is the most severe food-security emergency in the
world today.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In December 2015, T-TPLF “Deputy Prime Minister”
Demeke Mekonen </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://national.deseretnews.com/article/15366/why-the-ethiopian-government-downplays-the-ongoing-drought.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">, “It is obvious that the foreign media works with
different bodies of special interest. There is no such thing as famine in Ethiopia
these days.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">On April 11, 2016, USAID </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/food-assistance"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">reported</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">, “The projected level of
relief food assistance for [Ethiopia in] 2016 is 10.2 million people.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Does that mean
10.2 million people have nothing to eat and if handouts do not arrive on time,
a whole lot of them will die?!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Such is
T-TPLF-USAID broadcasting from Denial-istan, Ethiopia. No famine! No
starvation! No Nothing. Only El Nino-caused drought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I will never forget what Meles Zenawi said in <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">his very first press conference</span></b> after parking
himself comfortably in the saddles of absolute power in 1991. Meles </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi4aQodvEEE"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">said</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> he would consider
his “government a success if Ethiopians were able to eat three meals a day.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today, over 10
million Ethiopians are facing famine in the eye.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today, the
T-TPLF bosses and their cronies are living high on the hog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Does the
T-TPLF leadership today ponder on the ultimate litmus test of success set by
its founder and visionary leader?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The T-TPLF
leadership today does not give a rat’s behind about its dead visionary leader’s
dreams of three meals a day or the millions of Ethiopian dying from FAMINE!
That is a FACT!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">But the famine
is getting worse by the day in Ethiopia. Untold number are dying every day
hidden from the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">On April 12, 2016, Bloomberg News citing UN
sources </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-12/food-emergency-spreads-in-ethiopia-as-drought-worsens-un-says"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">reported</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The number of Ethiopian districts identified as
suffering a humanitarian emergency <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">increased 18 percent to 219
from December to March</span></b> as the impact of drought worsened, the
United Nations said.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Consecutive
missed rainy seasons last year caused by the ocean-warming effects of El Nino
have left about a fifth of Ethiopia’s approximately 100 million population in
need of food aid. A total of 443 districts were categorized as being in at
least some difficulty, up from 429 in December, the UN’s humanitarian office
said Tuesday in an e-mailed bulletin.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;">Of those, 219 areas are defined by a “very severe
lack of food security,”</span></i></b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> which may include “<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">excess mortality</span></b>, very high and increasing
malnutrition, and irreversible livelihood asset depletion,” according to the government.
Ethiopia comprises about 800 districts, or woredas. (Emphasis added.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Very severe
lack of food security” sounds like, you know, F-A-M-I-N-E to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What could be
worse than “very severe lack of food security”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Very, very,
very, very… severe lack of food security?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The “very
severe lack of food security” could produce “excess mortality”. I think
that is a nice way of saying the famine (or is it drought?) is going to wipe
out a whole lot of Ethiopians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">George Orwell
said, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The USAID,
T-TPLF and the UN are engaging in semantic gymnastics to make the 2016 famine
look like 10 milloin Ethiopians are missing mid-afternoon snack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why are USAID,
the U.N and others lying through the teeth about the FAMINE in Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In May 2012, I wrote a </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://ecadforum.com/2012/05/13/ethiopia-african-hunger-games-camp-david/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">commentary</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> entitled, “African
Hunger Games at Camp David.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In that
commentary, I complained about how Meles Zenawi and his international
supporters and international poverty pimps have been able to play public
relations and semantic games with famine and starvation in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I get it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">It is
embarrassing for a regime wafting on the euphoria of a bogus “10-11 percent
economic growth over the past 10 years” to admit famine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">If USAID and
their international “partners” begin to use the “F” word, then the U.S.
Congress may have to conduct hearings into the causes and consequences. That
means accountability for USAID.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
international press would be demanding access and accountability, and all hell
could break loose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Martin Plaut in a recent article in News Statesman </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/world/africa/2016/01/world-s-next-crisis-drought-and-famine-horn-africa"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">argued</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">, “Ethiopia’s “biblical” famines of 1973 – 74 and
1984 – 85 left hundreds of thousands dead, probably around 200,000 and 400,000
respectively. The first resulted in the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie;
the second contributed to the end of the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile
Mariam.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The T-TPLF
knows it could share the fate of previous Ethiopians governments if the people
find out the scope and magnitude of the FAMINE today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">That is why
USAID and the T-TPLF react reflexively and defensively whenever the “F” word is
mentioned. The T-TPLF lackeys froth at the mouth condemning the
international press for making “baseless” claims of famine, and castigate them
for perpetuating “negative images” of the country merely because the
international press insists on finding out verifiable facts about the food
situation in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">USAID famine/hunger/ drought semantic games<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID’s
messaging and talking points on drought/famine in Ethiopia are carefully
calculated to insulate and immunize the T-TPLF from any legal, moral and
political responsibility for its depraved indifference to the spreading famine
in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID and the
other international partners know full well the consequences of openly talking
about FAMINE.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">But USAID
needs to know two simple facts:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">1) Ethiopians are not as dumb as they look. You
can stand up and tell them their lives under T-TPLF dictatorship is a
democracy. But do not mistake their stony silence for stupidity. Do not insult
their intelligence. <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Do not equate being hungry and
poor with being stupid and dumb.</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">2) A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
But <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">famine by any other name (“very severe malnutrition”, “El Nino
caused drought”, etc.) is the bitter fruit of tyranny</span></b>. (Is “very
severe malnutrition” a kinder and gentler word for famine?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID is free
to defend its T-TPLF partners, cover up and tell lies for them and do whatever
they like. Emile Zola said, “If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it
will but grow.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The seeds that
sustain life may not be growing in Ethiopia, but there is a forest of truth
about the T-TPLF and USAID that is growing like weeds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">How shameless of USAID not to mention a single
(not one) fact about the failure of governance and the failure to adequately
plan for famine/drought mitigation?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">How shameless of USAID not to mention the death of
a single person (one person) from the 50 year-drought!!!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID thinks
it can pull the wool over the eyes of Ethiopians by feeding them a steady diet
of feel-good propaganda:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Thanks as well
to our partners from the United Nations and the NGO community who are doing
really tremendous and heroic work supporting the response to this drought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">This drought
is unquestionably a disaster. It is not necessarily a catastrophe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">It is entirely
possible to ensure that we do not see severe, catastrophic outcomes due to this
drought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">We have seen
very clear leadership by the government of Ethiopia in tackling this
drought. I saw across the board a strong, strong political will,
strong commitment to ensuring that this does not become a catastrophe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">[We can lick
the famine in 2016] because we have capacity and expertise that we did
not have 30 years ago. We have techniques and technologies we did not
have. We have specialized feeding products.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">We’ve been
working with the government. The government has stepped up in a big
way. So there is a lot being done, there’s a lot that’s been achieved,
there’s a lot that’s been in place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team to help prevent the drought in
Ethiopia from becoming a <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">full-blown humanitarian
catastrophe</span></b>. (Is a “full-blown humanitarian catastrophe” FAMINE?!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why can’t USAID use the word FAMINE? “<b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">The 2016 drought in Ethiopia could become a full blown FAMINE.</span></b>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">J’accuse USAID!</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID’s
approach to famine prevention and mitigation in Ethiopia is HANDOUTS and MORE
HANDOUTS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The Indian economics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen
argued that the best way to avert famines is by institutionalizing democracy
and strengthening human rights: “No famine has ever taken place in the history
of the world in a functioning democracy” because democratic governments “have
to win elections and face public criticism, and have strong incentive to
undertake measures to avert famines and other catastrophes.” Famines are kept
hidden from public view by jailing opposition leaders, journalists and civic society
advocates who could sound the alarm over an impending famine. <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">That is<u>exactly</u> what is happening in Ethiopia today!<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Barack Obama
last July stood up in Addis Ababa and declared the T-TPLF is a “democratic
government.” In his defense, he did not say a “functioning” democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">A non-functioning democracy is a </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/06/07/ethiopian-thugmocracy/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">thugmocracy.</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"> (That is what you
get when you cross a thugocracy with democracy or when thugs hijack democracy.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The T-TPLF is
a thugmocracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">The truth
about famine in Ethiopia is occasionally told by honest members of the
international donors and loaners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In 2011, Wolfgang Fengler, a lead economist for
the World Bank, in a refreshingly honest moment for an international
banker said, “The famine in the Horn of Africa is a result of artificially high
prices for food and civil conflict than natural and environmental causes. <b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">This crisis is manmade. Droughts have occurred over and again, but
you need bad policymaking for that to lead to a famine</span></b>.” (Emphasis
added.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In other
words, it is bad and poor governance that is at the core of the famine problem
in Ethiopia, not drought, El Nino or El Nina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Penny
Lawrence, Oxfam’s international director, after visiting Ethiopia observed:
“Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution. If communities have
irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can
survive despite what the elements throw at them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Martin Plaut,
BBC World Service News Africa editor explained that the food “crisis [in
Ethiopia] is in part the result of policies designed to keep farmers on the
land, which belongs to the state and cannot be sold.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">So the obvious questions are</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why does a
regime that has rejected socialism and is presumably committed to a free market
economy insist on complete state ownership of land?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why is there
not an adequate system of irrigation for crops, grain storages and wells to
harvest rains throughout the country?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">What is the
T-TPLF’s food security policy for Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Meles Zenawi
said Ethiopia will not need food aid by 2015? Is that T-TPLF’s food policy?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">In a 1992 article, Prof. Edmond J. Keller </span><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/keller/papers/SelectedPub/DroughtWarPolitics.PDF"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">argued</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The ‘Great
Famine of 1983-86’ was exacerbated by the ill-conceived policies of the
Derg. Because of climatic changes, the drought of that period was bound to be
major, but under other circumstances its effects might have been mitigated
through effective policies and timely foreign disaster relief. But the
Ethiopian [Derg] regime seemed more interested in pursuing a political
agenda of statist control rather than a strategy designed to achieve food
security.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today, the
T-TPLF is more concerned about a political agenda of total statist land
ownership and land grabbing and land giveaways than a strategy designed
to achieve food security by ensuring land security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID cannot
save El T-TPLF from accountability for famine in Ethiopia by blaming El Nino.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">J’accuse USAID!</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">USAID! Stop
insulting the intelligence of the people of Ethiopia as you watch them perish
in famine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">Man up USAID!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">If it looks
like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, IT MUST BE A DUCK!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">If it looks
like famine, feels like famine and kills like famine, IT MUST BE FAMINE.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">That is food
for thought at USAID.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 13pt;">I will make
USAID an offer they can’t refuse:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;">If USAID stops telling lies about the
non-existence of famine in Ethiopia, I will stop telling the truth about
USAID’s El Nino and severe malnutrition lies in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">Deal?!</span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-7194763061891693972016-04-15T00:30:00.000+02:002016-04-15T00:32:34.513+02:00Deafening silence from Ethiopia <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By
Felix Horne<br />
April 14, 2016</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Ethiopian government is cracking down on journalists and NGOs.
Where's the outrage from the international community?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Since November, state security forces have killed hundreds of protesters
and arrested thousands in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. It’s the biggest
political crisis to hit the country since the 2005 election but has barely
registered internationally. And with the protests now in their fifth month,
there is an almost complete information blackout.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">A teacher arrested in December told me, “In Oromia the world doesn’t
know what happens for months, years or ever. No one ever comes to speak to us,
and we don’t know where to find those who will listen to our stories.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Part of the problem is the government’s draconian restrictions on news
reporting, human rights monitoring, and access to information imposed over the
past decade. But restrictions have worsened in the last month. Some social
media sites have been blocked, and in early March security officials detained
two international journalists overnight while they were trying to report on the
protests. As one foreign diplomat told me, “It’s like a black hole, we have no
idea what is happening. We get very little credible information.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">With difficulty, Human Rights Watch interviewed nearly 100 protesters.
They described security forces firing randomly into crowds, children as young
as nine being arrested, and Oromo students being tortured in detention. But the
Ethiopian media aren’t telling these stories. It’s not their fault. Ethiopian
journalists have to choose between self-censorship, prison, or exile. Ethiopia
is one of the leading jailers of journalists on the continent. In 2014 at least
30 journalists fled the country and six independent publications closed down.
The government intimidates and harasses printers, distributors, and sources.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">International journalists also face challenges. Some do not even try to
go because of the personal risks for them, their translators, and their
sources. And when they do go, many Ethiopians fear speaking out against
government policies—there are plenty of cases of people being arrested after
being interviewed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Diaspora-run television stations have helped fill the gap, including
the U.S.-based Oromia Media Network (OMN). Many students in Oromia told me that
OMN was one way they were able to learn what was happening in other parts of
the region during the protests. But since OMN began broadcasting in March 2014
it has been jammed 15 times for varying periods. Radio broadcasts are also
jammed–as international broadcasters like Voice of America and Deutsche Welle
have experienced intermittently for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In December OMN began transmitting on a satellite that is virtually
impenetrable to jamming. But security forces then began destroying private
satellite dishes on people’s homes. Eventually the government applied pressure
on the satellite company to drop OMN, which has now been off the air for over
two months.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Social media has partially helped fill the information gap. Photos of
injured students and videos of protests have been posted to Facebook,
particularly in the early days of the protests. But in some locations the
authorities have targeted people who filmed the protests on their phones. At various
times in the last month, there have been reports of social media and
file-sharing sites being blocked in Oromia, including Facebook, Twitter, and
Dropbox. Website-blocking has been documented before – in 2013, at least 37
websites with information from Ethiopia were blocked. Most of the sites were
operated by Ethiopians in the diaspora.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Independent non-governmental organizations that might be reporting what
is happening face similar restrictions. The government’s Charities and
Societies Proclamation of 2009 virtually gutted domestic nongovernmental
organizations that work on human rights issues. The independent Human Rights
Council released a report on the protests in March. It was a breath of fresh
air, but the council released it at great risk. As the first report from
Ethiopian civil society on an issue of great political significance, it was a
damning indictment of the limits of freedom of expression in Africa’s
second-largest country, with a population of 100 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The government may believe that by strangling the flow of information
coming out of Oromia it can limit international concern and pressure. And so
far the response from countries that support Ethiopia’s development has been
muted. The deaths of hundreds, including many children, have largely escaped
condemnation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Yet the government’s brutally repressive tactics cannot be contained
behind Ethiopia’s information firewall for long. The sooner the government
recognizes this and acts to stop the mass arrests and excessive use of force,
the better the outlook for the government and the affected communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The government—with the assistance of its allies and partners—needs to
support an independent investigation of the events in Oromia, commit to
accountability and justice for the victims, and start dismantling the legislative
and security apparatus that has made Ethiopia one of the most hostile places
for free expression on the continent. What’s happening in Oromia has long-term
implications for Ethiopia’s stability and economic progress, and Ethiopians and
the world need to know what is happening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Felix Horne is the Ethiopia researcher at
Human Rights Watch.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-30489330155694443602016-04-11T21:47:00.000+02:002016-04-11T22:14:58.718+02:00USAID and Famine in Ethiopia: What Does Gayle E. Smith Have to Say?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 11.25pt 0cm 3.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">Posted in </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://almariam.com/category/al-mariam-commentaries/"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Al Mariam's Commentaries</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"> By </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://almariam.com/author/almariam/" title="Posts by almariam"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ea141f; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">almariam</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"> On April 10, 2016</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aUPWEdq-Dfc/Vwv8fFvm9EI/AAAAAAAAkLo/Gxu4SLSXhXctL7cHGVV1ZnUHeXN5kqINw/s1600/alemayehu-g-mariam.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aUPWEdq-Dfc/Vwv8fFvm9EI/AAAAAAAAkLo/Gxu4SLSXhXctL7cHGVV1ZnUHeXN5kqINw/s1600/alemayehu-g-mariam.png" /></a></div>
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<b style="line-height: 16.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none; font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">Author’s Note</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">: The following is a true
and correct copy of my letter to USAID Administrator Gayle E. Smith dated March
16, 2016, and the </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/USAID-T-C-Copper-Letter.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">response</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;"> I received from T.C.
Cooper, Assistant Administrator, USAID Bureau for Legislative and Public
Affairs dated April 7, 2016..</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7WKr9YqCiFQ/Vwv82KDR-7I/AAAAAAAAkLs/oIf55ZVS5hATLANYcpQyIP0UlqeqSOzeA/s1600/Gayle-Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7WKr9YqCiFQ/Vwv82KDR-7I/AAAAAAAAkLs/oIf55ZVS5hATLANYcpQyIP0UlqeqSOzeA/s1600/Gayle-Smith.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 16.5pt;">My letter questions recent
statements made by Ms. Smith regarding the famine in Ethiopia and solicits
factual and policy clarifications.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr. Cooper’s
letter is non-responsive to my inquiries and ignores specific factual and
policy issues I have raised with the Administrator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">It is a matter
of public record that I have fiercely opposed Ms. Smith’s confirmation to
become USAID Administrator. But as a true-blue constitutionalist, I
acknowledge and respect the Senate’s vote to confirm Ms. Smith despite my
personal opposition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">My inquiry letter</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref1"></a><a href="http://almariam.com/2016/04/10/usaid-and-famine-in-ethiopia-what-does-gayle-e-smith-have-to-say/#_ftn1"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; font-family: "inherit" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; padding: 0cm;">[1]</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> is guided purely by my concerns as an
American citizen and taxpayer, and not by any residual personal animus from the
confirmation process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">In one of my first commentaries opposing Ms.
Smith’s confirmation, I </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/06/21/the-axis-of-shevil-does-africa-need-gayle-smith/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">promised</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">, “We will use every legal
means available to us under American law to question Smith’s official actions
and decisions…” The fundamental purpose of my inquiry letter is to hold USAID
accountable in its use of American tax dollars in a country whose “government”
has a proven </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9556288.stm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">history</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> of “using aid as a
weapon of oppression” and as an insidious </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://nesglobal.org/eejrif4/index.php?journal=admin&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=102&path%5B%5D=279"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">tool</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> of corruption.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Our inquiry
shall continue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">===========
============== ============= ============<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">March 16, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ms. Gayle E.
Smith<br />
Administrator<br />
United States Agency for International Development<br />
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW<br />
Washington, DC 20523<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none; font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0cm;">By U.S. Mail Certified</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dear Ms.
Smith:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I am writing to follow up on your March 3,
2016 </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://m.state.gov/md253954.htm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">interview</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> with James Kirby in
which you discussed “new measures” aimed at addressing the “drought” in
Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Before I get
into the gravamen of my letter and in the interest of full disclosure, I should
like to state at the outset that I am one of the individuals who fiercely
opposed your appointment to head USAID.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I came out against your confirmation in my op-ed
in </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/241633-senate-should-not-confirm-gayle-smith"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">The Hill</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> on May 12, 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I have also expressed my </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/09/20/my-private-letter-to-senator-ted-cruz/"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">opposition</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> in a variety of
other advocacy forms and </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/09/24/ethiopia-senator-marco-rubio-is-with-us"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">forums</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">including on my own </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/09/24/ethiopia-senator-marco-rubio-is-with-us"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">website</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">My opposition
to your confirmation was based on three factors. First, I believe your record
in promoting and supporting democracy, freedom and human rights in Africa is
poor. Second, I believe your unwavering support for African dictators for the
past three decades has been detrimental to the welfare of Africans.
Third, I disagree with your approach to U.S. foreign policy in Africa, which I
believe treats Africans as welfare aid recipients who must be perpetually
tethered to the pockets of hard working American tax payers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I am making
the foregoing disclosures not to rehash my past opposition, but to
contextualize the instant inquiry letter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">In your
interview with John Kirby on March 3, 2016 concerning “what USAID is doing to
mitigate the effects of drought in Ethiopia”, you made a number of observations
which surprised, confused and bewildered me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">First, in your </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://m.state.gov/md253954.htm"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">interview</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> comments, you
appeared to strongly suggest that the current “drought” in Ethiopia is solely
the result of “this phenomenon called El Nino, which is striking hard at a
number of parts of the world, nowhere harder than in Ethiopia.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I found your
remark quite jarring as it suggests that Ethiopia is being singled out and
struck harder than any other country on the planet as a manifestation of divine
curse and wrath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I trembled as
I contemplated your remark and the possibility that the Black Horseman of the
Apocalypse has been sent to visit Ethiopia on a divine mission of retribution
not meted out to any other country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why is “El
Nino” “striking Ethiopia harder than any other country” on the planet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Second, in
your remarks you mentioned absolutely nothing about the role of poor
governance, lack of planning and organization by the ruling regime in Ethiopia
as even a partial proximate or actual cause for the “drought”. You also made no
mention of the manifestly poor response to the human costs of the drought
despite advanced warning by your own Famine Early Warning System. Do you
believe that poor governance and planning are at least aggravating factors in
the causation, spread and/or persistence of the current “drought” in Ethiopia?
Has your agency inquired and come to any conclusions concerning the fact
that the absence of good governance, bureaucratic incompetence and corruption
in the ruling regime in Ethiopia have contributed to the “drought” or consequences
of the “drought”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Third, you
stated that the “United States has, to date, provided over $500 million” and
“deploy[ed] what [is] call[ed] a disaster assistance response team.” You also
indicated the U.S. is “prepared to look at more” than $500 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">The sum of
USD$500 million is undoubtedly a considerable amount of money. As an American
taxpayer, I feel the sting of such generous alms-giving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">My concern has
to do with corruption in the expenditure of the $500 million. As you may be
aware, the ruling regime in Ethiopia has been accused of misappropriating,
stealing and converting humanitarian assistance for political purposes (e.g.
buy votes) and corruption.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I refer to Human Right Watch’s </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/10/25/ethiopia-aid-weapon"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">report</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">, “Ethiopia: Aid as a
Weapon”. That report documents, “Ethiopia’s repressive government has put
foreign aid to a sinister purpose, with officials in Ethiopia’s ruling party
using their power to give or deny financial assistance to citizens based on
their political affiliation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I believe you may also be aware of the conclusions
of the USAID’s Office of Inspector General which c</span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/other-reports/sarc0310.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">oncluded</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> (p. 26, also Appendix
1):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">… [W]we could
not determine the extent of that contribution because of weaknesses in the
mission’s performance management and reporting system. Moreover, the audit
could not determine whether the results reported in USAID/Ethiopia’s
performance plan and report were valid, because mission staff could neither
explain how the results had been derived nor provide support for those reported
results.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
safeguards, if any, are in place to ensure the ruling regime will not put any
of the $500 million to political purposes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
accountability processes are in place to ensure the prevention of corruption in
the administration of the aforementioned assistance in Ethiopia? How much of
the $500 million is provided to the ruling regime in Ethiopia in the form of
discretionary or non-discretionary expenditures?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fourth, I am
completely shocked by your remark, “You get into a worst-case scenario if
they’re forced to sell their land or abandon their land for temporary
employment.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">With all due
respect, are you aware that the “government” owns all land in Ethiopia? Are you
aware that Ethiopian farmers cannot sell the land by law? Is it possible you
may have confused Ethiopia with some other country where full private ownership
in land is permitted?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fifth, as you
may be aware, “land-grabbing” facilitated by the ruling regime has been alleged
as the principal cause of recent uprising throughout the country. For a number
of years, various informed commentators have suggested that the “government[‘s]
leasing [of] fertile land to foreign investors” is partially to blame for
famine and food insecurity in the country. What do you believe to be the
consequences of foreign investors leasing large swathes of fertile land on
Ethiopia’s food sufficiency and mitigation of food deficits? Do you believe
there is any causal relationship between landlessness and the incidence and
severity of famine in Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sixth, you
stated, “We are moving earlier in this case because we have found that there is
real alignment between donors, NGOs, the government, and UN agencies that if we
move very, very, very quickly, we can avert the worst impacts of this drought.”
What exactly is the “real alignment” between donors and the other elements of
the humanitarian communities? Was it the absence of “real alignment” between
donors, NGO’s, etc., in the past which has undermined rapid response to “avert
the worst impact of droughts”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Seventh, you
stated that the “[Ethiopian] government has actually put forth a fair amount of
money. As I recall – and don’t quote me on this; I think you should ask them
for the number – they were, I think 350, 400 – [Interviewer: 1.2 billion is
what they said.] No, no, no. Well, maybe. Maybe. That may be their number. I’m
aware of the last announcement they made when I was there, which was
significant. I think what is significant here is the government is responding
and they are putting money into the mix and doing their equivalent of kind of
an emergency request and adding money to the budget. But I would refer to them
for the exact numbers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">You added, “I
think what is significant here is the government is responding and they are
putting money into the mix and doing their equivalent of kind of an emergency
request and adding money to the budget.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I should be
glad to be corrected but the Ethiopian “government” has made no public
statement regarding its contribution of “1.2 billion” “into the mix”. Is that
$1.2 billion USD, Ethiopian birr or some other currency?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">The “Ethiopian National Risk Management
Coordination Commission” in December 2015 </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201512142378.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">announced</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> that “1.2 billion
USD is required to cope with the current drought that affected over 10 million
fellow citizens.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Bandying
around the “1.2 billion” figure without empirical support could seriously
mislead the Ethiopian public and ultimately undermine the credibility of USAID.
It may be helpful if USAID were to issue a clarification on this issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Nonetheless,
the core question is exactly how much money in USD or birr the Ethiopian
“government” is putting “into the mix and doing their equivalent of kind of an
emergency request”. Could you share that piece of information?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Eight, I am
shocked by your statement: “Now, I don’t want to underestimate the fact that
it’s already having impact. There have been losses to livestock. There are
signs and growing signs of malnutrition. We are at risk of poor farmers
invoking coping mechanisms and thus becoming poorer and more vulnerable over
time. But again, the important thing here is this is almost an act of emergency
prevention.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">You also
stated, “Because, as you all know very well, what too often happens is we wait
until the newspaper and the televisions are littered with images of starving
children. In this case, there is a great deal of human suffering now, but we
think it’s more prudent to get ahead of it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Your remark
strongly suggests the only “losses” to date are livestock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Media </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35038878"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">reports</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> are currently
headlining, “Ethiopia hit by worst drought in five decades”.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">It is
well-established that in the 1984-85 “drought” 32 years ago hundreds of
thousands of people died as a result of famine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">It is also
established that in the 1973-74 “drought” 42 years ago, hundreds of thousands
of people died as a result of famine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I am
completely bewildered by your exclusive reference to livestock “losses” and not
even mention any losses of human life in Ethiopia in 2016 when Ethiopia is hit
by the “worst drought in five decades”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Has USAID
surveyed for human losses in the current “drought”? If so, what are the losses
in human life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ninth, you
stated in your interview that, “We are challenging the world not just to
respond to human suffering, but to respond quickly enough to prevent something
even worse.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pardon me for
being confused. What could be “something worse” than the “worst drought in 50
years”? What could be worse than the “biblical famine” of 1973-74 or the
cataclysmic famine of 1984-85?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Do you believe
you have a moral obligation to tell the Ethiopian people that there is
“something worse” than the “worst drought in 50 years” possibly in store for
them in 2016?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Tenth, in your
interview you also touted the “considerable progress [in Ethiopia] of something
called the Productive Safety Net Program… where through harvesting small
amounts of water that can be used for livestock for people and for agriculture
they can build a buffer so that when people face things like drought…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I am
encouraged by your remark that “We and our partners always have in place robust
monitoring systems to make sure that it gets where it needs to go.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">As you may be aware, Human Rights Watch and others
have </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ethiopia1010webwcover.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">reported</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> (pp. 75-78) that the
Development Assistance Group, of which USAID is a part, has resorted to willful
ignorance to well-founded allegations of “politicization” of the Productive
Safety Net Program. There are some informants who allege nothing has changed in
the politicization of that program over the past six years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">In your claim
of “considerable progress” in the Productive Safety Net Program, what do you
consider to be “progress” and what are you criteria for measuring
progress? What safeguards are in place to prevent future
“politicization” Productive Safety Net Program by the ruling regime in
Ethiopia? What are the specific “robust monitoring systems” you mentioned were
in place “to make sure that it gets where it needs to go”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Eleventh, you
stated that “in the case of Ethiopia, we are constantly looking at the numbers
to try to determine are we staying at 10 or are we moving to 11 or are we
getting ahead and moving down. So that’s an iterative process that’s done on a
regular basis.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I take it the
“10” and “11” refer to millions of people “affected by the drought”. Your
comments are not clear to me. Are you suggesting that you have a margin of a
million people to determine if the drought situation is turning into a famine
situation? What is the significance of staying at the 1o million magic number
in quantifying the number of people affected by the “drought”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I have no
illusions that you will respond to my inquiry given my fierce opposition to
your nomination. By the same token, I would not be surprised if you felt my
inquiry is not made in good faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I should like
to suggest that I am not the only person who has questions about your
answers in your recent interview.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Let me assure you that I am writing this letter as
an inquiry from a concerned citizen and a tax payer. I am also writing in the
spirit of vigilant citizen engagement in the democratic process in much the
same way the U.S. Supreme Court </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/437/214/case.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">explained</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> (p.242) the
“basic purpose of FOIA [which] is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital
to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption
and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I do not
believe in political gamesmanship. I do believe in gathering facts to “hold the
governors accountable to the governed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I trust you
will accept my declaration that my only purpose in writing this letter is to
make sure that U.S. humanitarian aid is delivered in Ethiopia is put to proper
use and in conformance with applicable U.S. laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Nonetheless, I
hope to raise the questions herein with my considerable readership in
Ethiopia and globally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I shall
present your responses to my readers unedited should you find it appropriate to
respond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">I shall await
for your responses until April 8, 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Alemayehu (Al)
G. Mariam, Ph.D., J.D.<br />
Professor and Attorney at Law<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">cc:<br />
USAID<br />
Attn: Office of Inspector General<br />
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW<br />
Washington, DC 20523<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Click </span><span style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/USAID-T-C-Copper-Letter.pdf"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; padding: 0cm;">HERE</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> to read the true
and correct PDF copy of the response to my letter by USAID’s T. Charles Cooper,
Assistant Administrator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn1"></a><a href="http://almariam.com/2016/04/10/usaid-and-famine-in-ethiopia-what-does-gayle-e-smith-have-to-say/#_ftnref1"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #ea141f; font-family: "inherit" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; padding: 0cm;">[1]</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 13pt;"> Note: References in the original letter were
provided in footnotes, which have been converted herein into hyperlinks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-29050595916184225212016-04-11T20:06:00.000+02:002016-04-11T20:11:52.769+02:00Britain is giving more than £1m to train security forces who kidnapped Ethiopia’s ‘Mandela’ <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">By Daily Mail <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">April 11, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Britain
is giving over a million pounds to train Ethiopia’s security forces<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Country’s
regime abducted a Briton and holds him under sentence of death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Foreign
Office is spending £500,000 on a master’s programme in ‘security sector
management’ run by Cranfield University in Ethiopia<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">£546,500
is being spent on the Ethiopian Peace Support Training Centre</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Britain is
giving more than a million pounds to train Ethiopia’s security forces – even
though the country’s repressive regime abducted a British citizen and holds him
under sentence of death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Andargachew
Tsege, a father of three from North London, was snatched almost two years ago
while travelling through an airport in Yemen. After being forced on to a plane
to Ethiopia, he was paraded on television and held for months in secret
detention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet the Foreign
Office is spending £500,000 on a master’s programme in ‘security sector
management’ run by Cranfield University in Ethiopia – a one-party state accused
of horrific human rights abuses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Another £546,500
is being spent by the Ministry of Defence to help support the Ethiopian Peace Support
Training Centre, which opened last year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">‘I am furious,’
said Yemi Hailemariam, Mr Tsege’s partner and mother of their children.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">‘It’s crazy that
we’re giving aid like this. They say it is to improve human rights there but
then they go and help the security apparatus detaining Andy.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The funding –
made through the £1 billion Conflict, Security and Stabilisation Fund – emerged
in a Freedom of Information request to the Foreign Office, although it declined
to detail a human rights assessment on the grounds that it might ‘prejudice
relations’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">There are 35
students on the security management course, which includes modules on
intelligence operations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">They include
officials from Djibouti and Rwanda, another repressive state, as well as
Ethiopia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">‘It is deeply
alarming that UK taxpayers appear to be funding the very Ethiopian security
forces responsible for the kidnap and rendition of British citizen,’ said Maya
Foa, from campaign group Reprieve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Eighteen months
ago, International Development Secretary Justine Greening suspended a similar
programme ‘because of concerns about risk and value for money’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">This followed
the seizure of Mr Tsege, 61, who has lived in Britain since 1979 and been
called his nation’s Nelson Mandela.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">His case was
highlighted last month by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in a report
condemning the Ethiopian government for back-pedalling on human rights.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Internal emails
obtained by The Mail on Sunday show that shortly after Mr Tsege’s kidnapping,
the Foreign Office’s Africa director complained that a British Minister had
raised the case with the Ethiopian Prime Minister ‘but in the same week that
DFID announced lots of extra aid, which rather mixes messages’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Mr Tsege fled
Ethiopia after falling out with then-president Meles Zenawi for exposing
corruption and later establishing a pro-democracy party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Seven years ago
he was branded a terrorist and sentenced to death in absentia for allegedly
preparing a coup, which he denies strongly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">He was abducted
in June 2014 while travelling to Eritrea. After a year in solitary, he was
moved to a prison near Addis Abba called a ‘gulag’ by human rights groups.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">He had a broken
thumb when he last met British diplomats, and there have been fears of torture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia, seen
as an important ally in the war on terrorism, is the second biggest recipient
of British aid, receiving £277 million in direct donations this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">A Foreign Office
spokesman said: ‘Ethiopia is heavily engaged in the fight against Al Shabaab in
neighbouring Somalia, which is vital to build stability in the region and to UK
interests.’</span>Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-83896097456221249892016-04-10T11:38:00.000+02:002016-04-10T14:01:21.601+02:00Oromo Protests: The Martinet’s Message Meets Its Match<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">By Ezekiel Gebissa* | ADDIS STANDARD: April 1,
2016</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">In his book, The Dictator’s
Learning Curve, William J. Dobson argues that old-school dictators like Stalin,
Pol Pot, Mao and Idi Amin ruled with unrestrained violence before the advent of
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media networks known for
instantaneous communication. Contemporary dictators cannot keep their evil deeds
secret even when those deeds are committed in the remotest corners of the
earth. Dobson observes: “If you order a violent crackdown — even on a Himalayan
mountain pass — you now know it will likely be captured on an iPhone and
broadcast around the world. The costs of tyranny have never been this high.”
[1]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But some new dictators, while as brutal as the
old-school despots, have learned how to stay in power without appearing to work
against the global rising tide seeking democracy. In Dobson’s assessment:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Rather than forcibly arrest members of a human
rights group, today’s most effective despots deploy tax collectors or health
inspectors to shut down dissident groups. Laws are written broadly, then used
like a scalpel to target the groups the government deems a threat… Rather than
shutter all media, modern-day despots make exceptions for small outlets –
usually newspapers – that allow for a limited public discussion. Today’s
dictators pepper their speeches with references to liberty, justice, and the rule
of law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi,
though not featured in Dobson’s book, fits seamlessly the new dictatorship’s
profile. Recognizing that naked intimidation was not suited to ruling in the
era of “Third Wave Democracy” he peppered his speeches with the vocabulary of
democracy, human rights and freedom. Noting his success in adjusting his
rhetoric to new contexts, upon his death in August 2012, the Economist
eulogized him as “The man who tried to make dictatorship acceptable in the world.”[2]<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">From the beginning of his rule, the late Meles
recognized that winning the story is as important as winning the conflict in
today’s world of instant communication and information dissemination. He
skillfully constructed narratives that brought together sympathetic Western
interests and Ethiopian groups who were wary of the new political dispensation
of ethnic federalism. He created a narrative to delegitimize popular domestic
political opponents. Whenever political imperative dictated, he readily
switched to narratives that adjusted to changed circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles’s death in August 2012 not only removed
the lynchpin on the intricate system he built but also deprived his successors
of the mind that originated legitimizing narratives for the regime. The Oromo
protests that broke out in last months of 2015 have shown that the regime in
Ethiopia has lost its capacity to control the flow of information and to
construct compelling narratives that meet the demand of the time. In this
article, I highlight three political narratives that the late Meles constructed
and deployed at different times, and how these narratives were used to
legitimize the regime’s hold on power. I conclude my article by showing that
despite these well-established political narratives the ongoing Oromo protests
have revealed that modern information technology has made it impossible for
despots to rule an informed citizenry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia’s redeemer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ---------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">In June 1991, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation
Front (TPLF), followed by a few other rebel organizations, arrived in Addis
Abeba and ensconced itself in power. After seventeen years of a military
dictatorship (1974-91), the Ethiopian people were willing to give its new
rulers a chance. Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a
coalition of four parties, was subsequently formed after the collapse of the
socialist Derg.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">In the first years of its rule EPRDF sought
legitimacy by offering the following narrative that supported its right to
rule:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The TPLF liberated Ethiopia not just from evil
incarnate, Mengistu Hailemariam, but also from the centuries-old Amhara ruling
class domination and cultural hegemony. The liberation will not be secure until
the vestiges of the Amhara ruling class are removed from power and cultural
dominance. The Amhara elite, who often present themselves as unionist
Ethiopians, are beneficiaries of the old systems who are bent on turning back
the clock of history. The EPRDF is the only redeemer of Ethiopia who can guard the
gains of the liberation against chauvinists and the neftagna (rifle bearing)
class.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">While the TPLF is the only credible political
organization on a mission to reform and rebuild Ethiopia, it is not the enemy
of Amhara. The Amhara’s true mortal enemy is the “narrow nationalist” lurking
in the new region named Oromiya. To be specific, the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF) is the organization that massacred the Amhara in these places. In
addition to its responsibility of saving the country from disintegration, the
TPLF has the obligation to protect the Amhara from the narrow nationalist and
administer justice against those who committed these crimes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">For this narrative to take hold, it was
necessary to dislodge the Amhara elite’s political narrative that they were the
custodians of a three thousand year old civilization. The late Meles, who was
at the forefront of the new leadership, often made pronouncements that many
Amhara elite found irritating, such as: Ethiopia’s flag was a piece of cloth;
Axum and Lalibela had nothing to do with the Oromo or other southern
Ethiopians; and the notion that Eritrea was or is part of Ethiopia is without
historical merit, and one that remains a fairy tale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">By attacking the symbols that Amhara elite
cherished, the late Meles displaced the unionist, centrist, hegemonic narrative
that had sustained them in power. Rather than offer an alternative, however,
the Amhara elite opted for rehashing old issues. Perhaps believing that the
ethnic groups in Ethiopia had assimilated into a single Ethiopian nation, they
denied the very existence of an ethnic group called “Amhara.” They became
vociferous opponents of Eritrea’s independence, accusing Meles of being as
Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki’s lackey, and his party the TPLF Eritrea’s
instrument in Ethiopia. The old narrative was doomed in the age of ethnic
federalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">For the Oromo elite, the narrative battle
between the Amhara and Tigreans was a mere extension of a historical power
struggle between the two Semitic nations in northern Ethiopia. Many interpreted
the declaration of ethnic federalism as vindication of their own anti-neftegna
narrative. Once the Amhara ruling class was eliminated, however, EPRDF, the
coalition of four parties that was formed soon after 1991 with the late Meles
still at the helm, turned its delegitimizing narrative against its second enemy,
the Oromo elite, labeling them “narrow nationalists.” [3]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">This narrative preceded the action of moving
to destroy them:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The OLF is a secessionist organization
committed to dismembering Ethiopia. It is a “narrow” and “extremist”
organization that conducted the heinous massacre of defenseless Amhara at
Bedano (Harar) and Arbagugu (Arsi). If the TPLF did not stop them, they would
have kept on slaughtering the Amhara all over Oromiya. To prevent the OLF from
repeating such atrocities, the TPLF has designed and successfully implemented a
consistent operation against this Oromo anti-peace organization that is
committed to destabilizing Ethiopia and derailing the country’s development
efforts. And in this contest, the TPLF not only can win the war but it also can
redefine war itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Like their Amhara counterparts, OLF leaders
were unable to come to terms with this new strategy. They never presented a
direct counter-narrative, but instead created appeals and arguments that
emphasized the legitimacy of the right to self-determination, appealing to
uninterested international audiences. Ethiopia’s new rulers successfully
out-maneuvered these OLF leaders and created a rationale that justified
imposing autocratic rule over the Oromo sector of Ethiopian society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Overall, this narrative was designed to place
the TPLF dominated EPRDF government as “Ethiopia’s redeemer” replacing Amhara
and Oromo elite who were presented as “chauvinists” and “narrow nationalists”
respectively. This kept the Oromo and Amhara elite in perpetual mistrust and
conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">This narrative would have waned if it were not
for the outbreak of the Ethio-Eritrean War of 1998-2000. The war stopped the
substantial public criticism that the late Meles had endured since 1993 for
facilitating Eritrea’s independence. Within the TPLF itself the way the war was
conducted and ended launched a power struggle between two groups that came to
be known as the Meles-Sebhat faction and the Tewelde-Siye faction. When the
TPLF Central Committee debated and voted on the issue, the later prevailed over
the former. The acrimony was shelved, however, in favor of a show of unity in
the face of the ongoing war, which united both under the banner of defeating
outside enemy – Eritrea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Poverty eradicating Ethiopian patriot<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ---------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But post Ethio-Eritrea war saw the ever
powerful TPLF split into two factions. That gave the late Meles’s faction an
absolute monopoly of power to conduct a massive purge against senior party
officials who were accused of being “rotten Bonapartists” who exhibit
anti-democratic tendencies, engage in corrupt practices and aspire to turn
themselves into a ruling class. Some of them were subsequently charged and
sentenced with grand theft and corruption. The purge did not stop within the
TPLF but bruised the other parties in coalition with it. Notable purges were
seen within the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO); and The Southern
People’s Democratic Organization (SPDO) saw its head and president of the region,
Abate Kisho, sacked from his position and subsequently charged with corruption.
All this was done in the name of democratic centralism, party integrity and
national survival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia’s war victory, which was quick and
decisive, gave the late Meles and the party he dominated the chance to switch
the narrative from bashing Ethiopia to becoming Ethiopia’s savior. He
appropriated the narrative that was developed for the war against Eritrea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Paulos Milkias, writing in 2001, describes
this as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles abhorred and still abhors Ethiopian
nationalism that he, for some unknown reason, considers “chauvinistic.” But to
win the war, he reversed gear. The Ethiopian flag that he earlier referred to
as just “a piece of rug” all of a sudden became a highly revered symbol that
soldiers and politicians passed from hand to hand going on their knees and
bowing low. The national TV was suddenly filled with the pictures of victorious
Ethiopian emperors from Tewodros and Yohannes to Menelik and Haile Selassie. Axum
and Lalibela that he earlier said had no relevance to the people of the south
were suddenly transformed into historical treasures that the entire Ethiopian
populace regardless of their background and ethnicity had to die for. All this
was to combat Eritrean nationalism. [4] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">To strengthen his newfound Ethiopian
patriotism, the late Meles and his party stalwarts took public steps such as
refusing to sign the border agreement with Eritrea and belittling the sprinter
group as anti-Ethiopia power mongers. When the Eritrean-Ethiopian Boundary
Commission, (EEBC), ruling in 2003 awarded the disputed region to Eritrea,
Ethiopia rejected it. For Meles, it was a political move designed to shore up
his position within his party and in the country as an Ethiopian patriot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">At the same time, the Oromo capital was
ordered out of Addis Abeba and relocated to Adama. When Oromo students
protested the relocation, they were herded into prisons in the thousands,
expelled from Addis Ababa University in their hundreds. The Macha-Tuulluma
Association was closed. Oromo “narrow nationalists” were now dubbed
“anti-unity” and “anti-democracy.” This move further endeared Meles’s led EPRDF
regime to the Amhara as an Ethiopian patriot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">In the process, the Amhara Nation Democratic
Movement (ANDM) became the most important junior partner in the EPRDF
coalition. Its members came to dominate the government. Oromo elders discovered
their subordinate position when they petitioned the then university president,
Prof. Andreas Eshete, to reverse the decision to expel university students. He
rebuffed their entreaties. Oromo elder’s appeal to four additional ANDM
officials fell on deaf ears. The late prime minister never met them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It was around that time that the ruling party
discovered in economic appeals another opportunity for legitimacy. Designed to
the system’s critics and appeal to international interests conditioned by the
United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and China’s growing
engagement of Africa, EPRDF, still led by the late Meles, launched a campaign
portraying poverty as an existential threat to Ethiopia in a longwinded speech
to party apparatchiks in 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The issue of poverty in our country today
isn’t a matter of choice…Today, poverty is a matter of survival. It has become
unsustainable. Even if we choose to live in poverty, the level of deprivation
is so high that …our only choice is to confront poverty. Demographic pressure
itself is bringing pressure on the existing resources. We must know the enemy.
Our ultimate enemy is poverty, an enemy that is not against just our quality of
life but an enemy threatening our very existence as a people. If we are not
free from poverty, foreign aid and dependency, our sovereignty itself will be
in question. [5]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles’ colossal “war on poverty” thus was
launched emphasizing his new brand of Ethiopian patriotism. After vanquishing
his intraparty opponents and the Eritrean challenge, Meles and the ruling party
he so easily maneuvered to stay in the top felt confident that it was even
possible to win contested elections as an Ethiopian nationalist and
anti-poverty crusader.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It was in that context that Ethiopia held the
2005 disputed national elections; the oppositions Coalition for Unity and
Democracy (CUD) – alias Kinijit in Amharic – and the United Ethiopian
Democratic Forces (UEDF) competed on a political agenda that emphasized
“national unity”. The gambit proved disastrous for EPRDF. The contest by the
opposition block of the election results led to post election brutal crackdown
by the government against unarmed protestors, killing hundreds, and a reversal
of election results.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Coalition partners that form the EPRDF – ANDM
(Amhara), OPDM (Oromo) SEPDM (Southern region) – were all routed in their
respective regions demonstrating that the nations and nationalities they
purported to represent saw them invariably as puppets of the ever powerful and
dominant TPLF. The unprecedented success of the opposition shocked the EPRDF to
the core and awakened it to the grim reality that it could never win free and
fair elections. The CUD triumph represents the revival of the detested
“Amharas” and revealed the inadequacy of EPRDF’s so-called nationalist narrative
and its war on poverty.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It was time for the third narrative – the narrative
of power consolidation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Champion of the “Developmental State”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Having seen his party crushed in the 2005
elections, the late Meles busied himself and his party to come up with a new
narrative and saw, in China’s experience, the narrative of an economic growth
model under a one party domination. This was a ready-made economic narrative to
justify a heavy handed approach towards opponents. In this new narrative, the
late Meles boldly asserted the ritual of elections would be conducted only to
confirm the incumbent in office until Ethiopia became a middle income country.
This was a rather sophisticated political narrative that goes like:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia does not
have comparative advantage in any productive field, not even in the cost of
labor. The country’s agricultural exports cannot compete in international
markets. In these circumstances, the private sector, which would be needed for
sustained growth, would go for the readily available way of seeking to make
money through rent of all kinds including natural resource and foreign aid
rather than the rigorous task of benefiting from creating value for customers.
Because the private sector will be rent-seeking not value creating, the state
must guide the private sector to the possibility of shifting to value creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The noninterventionist ‘night-watchman’ state,
which allows only for the market to rule, is a second dead end. The ‘predatory
state’ of Africa’s first post-colonial decades was one dead end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia needs a capable state to lead
development. To allow for technological capacity accumulation, which lies at
the heart of development, Ethiopia needs an activist state that will allocate
state rents in a productive manner. In other words, the government should also
help by investing in education, research and physical infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia needs a ‘developmental state’ that is
obsessed with value creation and obsessed with making accelerated and
broad-based growth a matter of national survival. To succeed in this, we need
to establish the hegemony of developmental discourse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Once we make value creation to be dominant, it
will serve as the foundation of democracy. If we don’t succeed, the result
isn’t just failure of democracy. If we don’t grow fast and share our growth, we
will cease to exist as a nation. [6]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Needless to say, however, this developmental
state proposition is fraught with contradictions. The first is whether the
federal arrangement can survive the developmental state. The renowned scholar
Christopher Clapham has pointed out that there is an inherent contradiction
between developmental state, which requires central control, and federal
arrangement, which requires devolution of power [7]. The kind of state-led
growth program that the developmental state envisions requires centralized
macroeconomic planning and management which in turn demands effective control
of resources, particularly land. This cannot be implemented without reviving
the very problems the structure of Ethiopia’s current federalism was designed
to resolve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Second, the benefits of growth must be shared
broadly if economic growth were to serve as the basis of legitimacy [8]. Since
the launching of the developmental state, the nuveau riche appear everywhere
and seemingly out of the blue. The party itself owns business worth almost a
quarter of the national economy – calculating the net worth of four mega
businesses owned by the EPRDF coalition partners EFFORT, TIRET, DINSHO and
WENDO Trading. This, of course, excludes the MIDROC conglomerate and many
shadowy family businesses owned by or affiliated with oligarchs who officially
serve as government officials. Ethiopia’s economic growth achieved under this
“developmental state” model fails to be broadly shared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Third, the
announcement of double-digit economic growth is an insidious scheme that has
left many Ethiopians confounded. If the government’s claims are true, many
Ethiopians ask, why are people food-insecure? Why are employed people unable to
keep up with price rises for basic consumer goods? Why are university graduates
unable to find employment? In short, why is life miserable and prospects for
improvement increasingly dim as the country’s growth rate increases?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The simplest
explanation for the disconnect between rhetoric and reality is that the
government plays a numbers game with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) approach
to measuring development. Experts agree that the GDP doesn’t measure human
welfare or the overall national economic health. I choose to focus on this
specific issue because it relates to the Oromo protests that have rocked the
country now for past four months. The Addis Abeba Integrated Master Plan, for
example, highlights the contradictions in the ‘developmental state’ approach.
In seeking control over land resources according to the Second Growth and
Transformation Plan (GTPII), it proved that such a project cannot be
implemented without provoking local resistance, requiring brute force from the
state to quell it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The Oromo protests of 2014 and 2015 were
provoked by the arbitrariness of just such practices of land transfer. Around
the country, the government offers prime farmland to foreign investors at less
than market prices. In remoter areas, foreign investors are given a rent
holiday or given land free of charge. The investor is allowed to export his
harvest and the number is captured as GDP.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The farmers who lost their farmland and their
livelihood are hired as wage laborers if they are lucky; if not, they stand
idly by and watch grain being trucked away from their former lands while they
go hungry. GDP indeed grows but the people are hungry. This same government
permits exporting hydropower while the country experiences daily blackouts. The
kind of gobbledygook expose the developmental state is a political narrative
designed to garner support for the regime rather than an economic policy meant
to produce broadly shared benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The undoing of the narrative of “Prosperity”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">A quarter century after seizing power, the
TPLF dominated EPRDF appears to have exhausted its options to construct
narratives that delegitimize its opponents and legitimizes its rule. It is now
revealed that the policies of the developmental state are not friendly to
market forces. State control of land is shown to be antithetical to
agricultural productivity as the looming famine demonstrates. The monopoly of
party-controlled mega businesses and politically-affiliated private businesses
have displaced individual ventures and given way to rampant corruption and
uneven market structure. Because the realities on the ground have overtaken the
rhetoric of the developmental state, the goal of creating a hegemonic developmental
discourse has clearly run its course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Prospects for constructing a new, workable
legitimizing narrative are remote. The death of Meles Zenawi, the ever-creative
fountainhead of new narratives has proved to be an irreplaceable loss. The
developmental state narrative is exposed as a scheme for a political economy of
banditry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Led by Oromo protestors, Ethiopians have
rejected a political economy that values the opulence of a shadowy oligarchy
over ordinary human livelihood, and a development model that extinguishes human
life in defense of private investments. No political narrative, however
sophisticated, can persuade people that the deprivation they experience in
daily life can be misconstrued as “prosperity”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">More importantly,
modern media have made it impossible for the government to control flow of
information and construct new narratives. The role of hundreds of individuals
in reporting and spreading real-time information through Facebook and Twitter
is a phenomenon that this government cannot combat effectively. Despite the
government’s efforts to disrupt the flow of information, it cannot reverse the
democratized field of the new media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Oromo protesters
are constructing a new Oromo narrative through sustained widespread resistance,
new slogans and immense sacrifice. They have rejected totalitarian rule. They
are demanding economic security, cultural regeneration, and self-rule in the
Oromiya region. They have created an opening to look for common ground among
all who reject the existing narrative to replace it with one that has the
potential to shape the political scene in Ethiopia for the foreseeable future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ----------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Addis Standard Ed’s Note: *Ezekiel Gebissa is
a Professor of History and African Studies at Kettering University in Flint,
Michigan. He can be reached at egebissa@kettering.edu<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ---------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">End Notes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ---------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[1] William J. Dobson, The Dictator’s Learning
Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy (Doubleday, 2012), p. 3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[2] The Economist, August 12, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[3] International Crisis Group, “Ethiopia:
Ethnic Federalism and Its Discontent,” Crisis Group Africa Report 153: 4
(September 2009), p. 4.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[4] Paulos Milkias, “Ethiopia: The TPLF and
Roots of the 2001 Political Tremor,” International Conference on African
Development, Center for African Development Policy Research Archives Western
Michigan University, August, 2001, p. 7.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[5]“Meles Zenawi discusses poverty and the
choices and means of defeating it with high Ethiopian government officials,” September
1, 2002.
http://www.meleszenawi.com/the-late-ethiopian-prime-minister-meles-zenawi-explains-how-to-defeat-poverty-to-ethiopian-law-makers/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[6] Meles Zenawi, “State and markets:
neoliberal limitations and the case for a developmental state.” In Good growth
and governance in Africa: rethinking development strategies, (eds) A.Noman, K.
Botchwey, H. Stein & J Stiglitz (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012),
pp.140-169).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[7] Christopher Clapham, “Federalism and the
Developmental state”. Public Lecture Series on Perspectives on Diversity in
Ethiopia, Centre for Federal Studies, Addis Ababa University, September 23,
2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">[8] This was the concern of Deng Xiaoping, the
architect of China’s developmental state, in the early 1990s. His famous
Southern Tour was meant to mobilize support for his reform efforts against the
opposition of the hardliners in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His appeal
to the reformers in the CCP who came to be his successors was that the party
could not survive if the gains of the growth weren’t shared broadly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ===========//===========//==============<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-41374765542182086552016-04-10T00:00:00.000+02:002016-04-10T00:02:54.808+02:00Quo Vadis Ethiopia: Where Are You (not) Going? [Prof Alemariam]<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 30.0pt; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 4.5pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Excerpted
English version of speech given at the “Conference on the Future of Ethiopia:
Transition, Democracy, and National Unity” organized by Vision Ethiopia on
March 27, 2016 at the Marriott Georgetown.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">…I want to
thank Vision Ethiopia and the organizers of the “Conference on the Future of
Ethiopia: Transition, Democracy, and National Unity”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">When Prof.
Getachew Begashaw called me months ago to invite me to attend and participate at
this conference, I was impressed by the idea of a forum for broad engagement,
dialogue and debate on issues facing Ethiopia. I hope others will follow the
vision of Vision Ethiopia and organize more forums.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I would like
to express my appreciation and gratitude to Prof. Getachew and all of the
organizers in Vision Ethiopia for their wonderful efforts in putting together
this conference. Thank you all for caring so much about Ethiopia and the people
of Ethiopia in organizing this conference. Change cannot come without caring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I also want
to thank Ethiopian Satellite Television for covering this conference. It
was in May 2010, six years ago that ESAT literally burst on the Ethiopian
scene from space to provide alternative news, information, analysis and entertainment
to Ethiopians wilting under T-TPLF propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I served as
the first chairperson of the ESAT advisory committee. It was wonderful working
with Ethiopians from diverse professional backgrounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I know the
forces of the Dark Side who draw their power from fear, anger, hatred, revenge
and aggression continue their efforts to block ESAT transmissions, but ESAT
with its light saber relentlessly continues to slash through the curtain of darkness
hanging over the people of Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The best
weapon of dictators is secrecy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The best
weapon against dictators is free media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The best
battle plan against dictators is to be armed to the teeth with the truth and
use the media to shine the blinding light of accountability on oppressors
clinging nakedly to power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Thank you
ESAT for shining your blinding light on visionless oppressors. Thank you ESAT
for all you have done to inform and enlighten the people of Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I want to
thank all of the presenters at this conference for their thoughtful and
provocative presentations. I have learned much from their insights and
diversity of views and opinions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I thank all
of you who attended this conference this weekend. Thank you for your
penetrating questions and insightful comments. Your participation has vastly
improved the quality of this conference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">As many of
you are aware, I got into the human rights struggle in Ethiopia after the late
Meles Zenawi ordered the massacre of unarmed protesters following the 2005
election. We all know that 193 men, women and children were shot down in
the streets and over 30 thousand persons imprisoned throughout the country.
There are 237 policemen who committed those atrocities who are walking the
streets free today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">That
massacre continues today. The mass arrests and persecutions continue today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the past
few weeks, over 270 Ethiopians have been massacred in Oromia region by the
Thugtatorship of the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (T-TPLF).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Thousands
have been jailed in T-TPLF secret and official jails. No one but the T-TPLF
knows the real figures about how many they have killed and jailed. They are not
talking. They are just killin’ and jailin’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The absence
of massive outrage and visible support for the struggle in Oromia against the
T-TPLF is itself an outrage and a moral abomination. When Ethiopians in Oromia
bleed, when they are jailed and disappear, why do we remain silent? Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Before I
offer my remarks, I ask you all to join me in remembering the 193 men, women
and children killed in the Meles Massacres in 2005, the thousands of others the
T-TPLF has massacred but whose deaths were not recorded by any inquiry
commissions since or before that election, the 270 documented victims of T-TPLF
wanton violence recently and the thousands of political prisoners languishing
in T-TPLF prisons today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I want to
take a moment to remember our Ethiopian heroes unjustly imprisoned by the
T-TPLF. There are so many of them. It is impossible to list them all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">We remember
Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie, Bekele Gerba, Ahmed Jebel, Abebe Qesto,
Emawayesh Alemu, Woubshet Taye, Temesgen Desalegn and so many others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">“Quo vadis,
Ethiopia?”</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I have come
across three time zones to answer this question with questions, more accurately
to interrogate the question itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">What does
the question “Where is Ethiopia going?” even mean?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I am sure
for many people it is a straightforward question for which there is a
straightforward answer. For me it is a mind-bogglingly complex question for
which there could be an infinite set of answers<i>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The modern
usage of the phrase “quo vadis” originates from a question allegedly asked of
Saint Peter the Apostle as he fled likely crucifixion by Emperor Nero Augustus
Caesar in Rome. It is said that Peter met the risen Jesus on the outskirts of
Rome where Peter asked Jesus “Quo vadis?”. Jesus allegedly replied, “Romam eo
iterum crucifigi” (“I am going to Rome to be crucified again”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Inspired by
the response, Peter is said to have returned to Rome to continue his work
eventually crucified upside-down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Happy Easter
to all who celebrate that holiday today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I first came
across that Latin phrase when I was in high school in Addis Ababa in the late
1960s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Well over
four decades ago, I published an article, an op-ed of sorts, in a popular
English monthly(?) magazine in Addis Ababa (circa 1968-69), the name of which I
cannot remember, with same Latin phrase questioning, if my memory serves me
right, what I believed the unconventional life styles of some of my youthful
contemporaries. I was a geek of sorts then and was questioning where the youth
were going.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Almost
one-half half century later, I am asking the same question. “Quo vadis,
Ethiopia?” Where are you going Ethiopia? I should like to add, “or not going?”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Life can be
strange and funny sometimes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It is
strangely funny to me to ask the same question I asked of my contemporaries so
long ago of the young people today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Over 70
percent of the population of Ethiopia is said to be under 35.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So the first
question about the question is, “Should the question be reframed more precisely
as “Quo vadis, Ethiopia’s youth?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I am not
trying to sideline my Hippo Generation, just stating the hard facts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">As I ask the
youth where they are going, I am compelled to share with the Cheetah Generation
a cautionary but wise African saying about going places: “If you don’t know
where you are going, any road will take you there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So it is
important for Ethiopia’s youth to have a road map to navigate to their chosen
destination(s).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Others say,
“All roads lead to (from) Rome.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Roman
Empire was large and political power radiated out of Rome to the rest of its
imperial possessions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Just in
passing I will mention that “Il Duce” Benito Mussolini found a road to Ethiopia
in 1935 to begin the “new Roman empire” and sent his troops over to
declare, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” His predecessors tried the same
thing in 1896.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Twice Rome
found out from the Ethiopians, “You came, you saw and here is a boot to your
rear end to help you get back to Rome pronto.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">But the
question to Ethiopia’s youth is, “Do all roads lead to (from) Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The
question, “Quo vadis Ethiopia?” has its corollary, “Where are you going
T-TPLF?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The T-TPLF
master builders of the empire of corruption have the same attitude about
Ethiopia as did Mussolini. They came out of the bush and declared, “We came. We
saw. We conquered.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopians
should deliver the same message to the T-TPLF. “You came. You massacred. You
stole. Here is a boot to get you back to the bush in a hurry.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Follow the
youth</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">To find out
where Ethiopia is going, I say follow the youth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So the
question, rephrased again is this, “Are Ethiopia’s youth looking to find
Ethiopia?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Albert
Einstein once observed that “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55
minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Einstein
also said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is
limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the
entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Phrased more
poetically, George Bernard Shaw said, “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But
I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” That is the kind of
imagination I am talking about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I have been
given 20 minutes to solve all of Ethiopia’s problems, so I have decided to use
17 minutes to think about the problems out loud with you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I will use
the remaining 3 minutes to think about the solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I shall try
to weave together four themes — the African proverb, the twin Einsteinian
notions of thinking critically and thinking imaginatively and creatively
and the notion that all roads lead to Rome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The
organizing question for the conference is, “Ethiopia, where are you going?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It is an
important question because it is on the minds of every Ethiopian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I have
wrestled with the question for quite a while.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In April
2011, I wrote a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2012/04/16/ethiopia-the-bridge-on-the-roadmap-to-democracy/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ff3300; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">commentary</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> entitled,
“The Bridge on the Road(map) to Democracy”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In June
2012, I wrote a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2012/06/11/ethiopia-on-the-road-to-constitutional-democracy/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ff3300; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">commentary</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> entitled,
“Ethiopia: On the Road to Constitutional Democracy”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In January
2011, I wrote a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2011/01/31/after-the-fall-of-african-dictatorships/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ff3300; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">commentary</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> weekly
column entitled, “After the Fall of African Dictatorships”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I have
written many other </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="http://almariam.com/2015/12/27/the-end-of-the-story-for-the-t-tplf-in-ethiopia/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #ff3300; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">commentaries</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> on the
question, the latest one this past December entitled, “The ‘End of the Story’
for the T-TPLF in Ethiopia?”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Why it is on
the minds of all Ethiopians is open to question. There are a thousand different
reasons to ask that one question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Is the
question raised because we could see the twilight of the T-TPLF?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Could it be
because things are changing so fast in Ethiopia that some see an enveloping
darkness of deepening repression over the horizon and others blinding light of
liberation from T-TPLF rule at the end of the tunnel?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">To me the
five words in the question resonate differently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I hear those
words asking me, not one but endless questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
where are you going with the T-TPLF? (Ethiopia is at a dead end with the
T-TPLF.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
where are you going after the T-TPLF is gone?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
who will take over after the T-TPLF is over?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
are you going to be an undiscovered country after the T-TPLF is gone?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
are you going backwards into tyranny and authoritarianism as you have over the
past one hundred years?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
will you walk over the minefields the T-TPLF has set for you over the past 25
years and implode?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
are you heading towards civil war?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
are you finally getting back on the long walk to freedom in the same sense as
Nelson Mandela?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
are you walking in the direction of truth and reconciliation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia,
are you ready to walk out of the kilil walls built around you and into a land
free of the shackles of ethnic politics, sectarianism and thug rule?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">No one I
know wants to answer or begin to answer these questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I certainly
don’t want to answer them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">These are
very difficult questions. They are scary questions. They are complex questions.
They are mind-boggling questions. They are questions that seem intractable and
insurmountable. They are questions that trigger depression in the most
optimistic and good-willed Ethiopian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Answering
these questions demands extraordinary creativity; extraordinary imagination and
extraordinary commitment and sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I know how
the T-TPLF’s answers these questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The T-TPLF
will tell you that without their guidance and leadership Ethiopia will go the
way of the way of Syria and Libya. (That’s their fervent wish. If they can’t
have Ethiopia for their playground, let it be destroyed. Apre moi, le deluge.
(After me (us), the flood.) Or as the Ethiopian saying goes, “The donkey said
after she is dead she does not care if grass ever grows.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The late
T-TPLF mastermind Meles Zenawi was fond of saying that without his guiding hand
Ethiopia will go the way of Yugoslavia. The former Yugoslavia is today seven
nations. That was Meles’ dream for Ethiopia. That is the T-TLF’s dream today.
After they go, Ethiopia will go 7 or 9 separate ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Meles is
gone and Ethiopia is still here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">After the
T-TPLF is gone, Ethiopia will continue to be here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">It is the
privilege of self-proclaimed messiahs that the road will end with them and
without them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">There is no
question that the Ethiopia-stan made of killils and kililistans will end with
the end of the T-TPLF.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Didn’t apartheid
end (at least officially) with the end of white minority rule in South Africa?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethnic
federalism (ethnic apartheid) is the womb and amniotic fluid in which the
T-TPLF was gestated and born.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kililistans
were birthed to maintain the T-TPLF in power. Just as there could be no white
minority rule and bantustans in South Africa without apartheid, there could
also be no T-TPLF rule without ethnic federalism and killilistans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">But I have
chosen to re-frame the question “quo vadis” in an imaginative way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The question
is, “Where is Ethiopia going after the T-TPLF is gone?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">To me that
question is similar to asking a person afflicted by cancer what he would do if
s/he is suddenly free of cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Supposing a
person who is unjustly imprisoned for decades is suddenly set free, how would
that person feel?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Supposing a
population held in bondage for decades were set free, how would they feel?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I think we
can answer these questions with other questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">How did the
majority of South Africans feel when the minority white apartheid regime
collapsed and was replaced by majority rule in 1994?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">How did the
majority of South Africans feel when Nelson Mandela and thousands of
anti-apartheid leaders and political prisoners were released in 1991?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">How did the
majority of South Africans feel when they stood up for hours to cast their
ballots for the first time in their lives and managed to elect the government
of their own in an election that was not rigged, in a free and fair election,
an election that was not won by 100 percent by the minority white apartheid
regime?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The 600
pound gorilla or the 6,000 pound elephant in the room is where Ethiopia is
going after the T-TPLF is gone, swept into the dustbin of history?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Where is
Ethiopia going after the mud walls of T-TPLF dictatorship come tumbling down
and the T-TPLF glass palaces of illusion behind the mud walls are shattered by
a tsunami of popular uprising or creeping resistance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Will
Ethiopia go the way of Humpty Dumpty who “had a great fall” and could not be
put back together by “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Or will
Ethiopia rise from the ashes of the T-TPLF and be all it can be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I have
prophesied that the T-TPLF is on its last legs living on borrowed time. T-TPLF
prime minster recently said the T-TPLF can no longer expect to cling to the
backs of the people. Those days are over, according to Hailemariam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The
question, “Where is Ethiopia going?” cannot be answered without asking the
corollary question, “Where is the T-TPLF going?”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The T-TPLF
is going to the dustbin of history!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The T-TPLF
is a dead end street for Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So here are
two questions that need to be addressed: 1) What happens in the run up to the
time when the T-TPLF is swept into the dustbin of history? 2) What happens
between the time the T-TPLF is swept in to the dustbin of history and history
is made to replace the T-TPLF?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The
Solution- A road map for the long road to freedom?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I will come
back to the African proverb. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road
will take you there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The road map
is a new Ethiopian constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I have
studied the T-TPLF constitution. It is a patchwork of borrowed language from
other constitutions just like the T-TPLF’s so-called anti-terrorism law is a
cut-and-paste of terrorism laws from different countries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">From what I
have been able to gather from the T-TPLF constitution, there is no such entity
as “Ethiopia”, only “peoples, nations and nationalities” in the land mass known
as Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Perhaps I
should correct myself because the landmass known as “Ethiopia” is itself in
question today after you subtract the land given in “arbitration” in the
northern border to an invading army and a 700-plus kilometer slice of land
secretly handed over to the Sudan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the
Preamble to the T-TPLF constitution, it is written, “We, the
nations, nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">There is no
nation as “Ethiopia” per se constitutionally, only nations, nationalities and
peoples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Just to
clarify what I mean, let me ask you to consider the Preamble to the
Constitution of the United States which states: “We the People of the United
States…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">There is one
people of the United States (“We the People…”) even though the United States is
a nation of immigrants who came from all nations, nationalities and peoples of
the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">“We the
people…” is the principal reason why the U.S. has survived and prospered,
despite major imperfections for well over two centuries. (I did not say
abominations like Donald Trumpenstein.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I believe
the Preamble to the Constitution of the New Ethiopia should begin with the
following phrase, “We the People of Ethiopia, in order to…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Second, the
constitution of the New Ethiopia should have language along the following
lines: “The powers not delegated to the national Ethiopian government by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people.” In other words, the new national government of
the New Ethiopia will function only to the extent that the national
constitution grants power to it. You may have seen similar language in
the tenth amendment to longest enduring constitution in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Third and
straight up, the new constitution of the New Ethiopia should adopt in its
entirely Article 55(4) of Ghana’s Constitution: “Every political party shall
have a national character, and membership shall not be based on ethnic,
religious, regional or other sectional divisions.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">If these
three constitutional objectives could be achieved, what remains is getting on
Nelson Mandela’s long road to freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Imagine a
freedom ride on Nelson Mandela’s Way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">What is
Mandela’s way? It is the way of freedom from the mental prison and slavery of
racial and ethnic hatred and sectarianism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Mandela
said, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom,
I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in
prison.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I believe a
new constitutional roadmap to the New Ethiopia will lead all Ethiopians out of
the mental prisons of long-simmering ethnic hatred and geographic cages called
“kilils” into the promised land of truth and reconciliation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Mandela’s
way of truth and reconciliation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Many
countries have undergone a truth and reconciliation process including
Rwanda, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ghana and Chile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">There are
different approaches to truth and reconciliation. The basic idea is to help a
country heal its political and social by uncovering the truth about human
rights violations that had occurred during a particular period. The
basic idea is you cannot build a new nation on a foundation of revenge and the
Hamurabic Code of “an eye for an eye.” That could only lead to a nation of
blind people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia is
the global poster child for human rights violations so a truth and
reconciliation process is vital for a post T-TPLF Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I believe a
successful truth and reconciliation process will pave the road to genuine
multiparty democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I am talking
about a multiparty democracy based on the rule of law, respect for human
rights, governance accountability and transparency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I do NOT
mean a multiparty democracy based on ethnicity, religion, language, region and
so on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Good
governance depends upon the ability of individuals and groups to express their
opinions and compete in the political process. A strong multi-party political
system enables citizens to organize around issues and advance ideas, policies
and programs for governance. A strong multiparty system ensures people who
share similar views and opinions to organize and pressure government.
Competitive multiparty systems provide political space for the expression
of civic discontent and engagement into constructive policy debates for
peaceful change. A multiparty political system facilitates inclusion of
marginalized groups in society, particularly youth and women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">So, I will
ask the question one more time. “Where is Ethiopia going?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia is
going out of T-TPLF kililistan into a constitutional democracy where the rule
of law prevails and human rights are respected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ethiopia is
walking out of artificial and unnatural kililistan homelands into one Ethiopian
nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Let me
invoke the old African saying one more time. “If you don’t know here you are
going any road will take you there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Now, we know
where we are going and which road we need to take to get where we want to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The destiny
of Ethiopia is in the hands and feet of all Ethiopians. They have the power to
pick her up or to drop her and shatter her like glass. They can walk with her
on the long road to freedom or they can leave her in the wheelchair built for
her by the T-TPLF.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Where
Ethiopia is going is up to all of the people of Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Let me come
back to Einstein and Shaw one more time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Einstein
said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited
to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I believe
Einstein meant that human destiny is not determined just by what we know, but
also by what we can imagine. It was Einstein who asked the supremely beautiful
imaginary question, “What if I can ride a beam of light across the universe?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">What if we
can imagine establishing a genuine multiparty democracy based on a foundation
of the rule of law in Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">What if we
can imagine establishing a federal system of government in Ethiopia based on
the division of powers between the national and sub-national governments?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">What if we
can imagine establishing political parties organized NOT on the basis of
ethnicity, religion, region, language, etc.?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">What if we
can imagine an Ethiopia free of the T-TPLF cancer on the Ethiopian body
politics?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">I let my
imagination run free and wild. Like Shaw I ask, “You see things; and you say,
‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">If some can
imagine the freedom of riding on a beam of light, why can’t we imagine setting
on a long walk to freedom?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ultimately,
the question of where Ethiopia is going will be answered by Ethiopia’s young
women and men, Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation with the support of Ethiopia’s
Hippo Generation. It is going to be answered by the thousands of political
prisoners in Ethiopia who are paying the ultimate price for our freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">ALL ROADS
LEAD TO THE NEW ETHIOPIA!!!</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-34484714577923305262016-04-09T19:05:00.000+02:002016-04-09T19:07:23.714+02:00ESAT appoints Abebe Gellaw as executive director<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">(ESAT News) — The Board of
the Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT) announced that it has
appointed journalist and activist Abebe Gellaw as the new executive director.
Abebe will fill in the position vacated by Neamin Zeleke who resigned few months
ago due to other responsibilities and commitments.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 20.25pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Journalist Abebe Gellaw</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Abebe in his capacity as
the executive director will oversee the day to day activities of ESAT which has
branches in DC, London and Amsterdam. Abebe has years of experience in
journalism under his belt and is known and commended for his activism in the
struggle to bring freedom and democracy to his country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">“I will do my level best
to lead ESAT to more successes and overcome the many challenges it faces,”
Abebe said in his Facebook post on Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Abebe worked for ESAT from
2011 to 2013 and then moved to California where he has been working for an IT
company in Silicon Valley for the last three years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">His appointment is
effective April 01, 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-27972177762141318342016-04-09T16:39:00.000+02:002016-04-09T16:44:57.527+02:00Where do we go from here?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By Teshome Abebe
(PhD)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The following
text of the speech was presented at Vision Ethiopia Conference on March 27,
2016. Because of time limitations, some paragraphs may not have been presented.
I attended the conference as an academic only representing myself, and not as a
member of a political party or any other group. As a result, the views
expressed are mine alone. No financial support was requested or received from
any individual or group, and my assignment was to respond to the following
questions:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Quo Vadis? Where
Do We Go From Here? Who Should Do What to Guarantee Democracy, Transition, and
Unity in Post Conflict Ethiopia?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Background: </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where We Have Been</span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is no need
to dwell too long on this part of my presentations, as all of you know so well
where we have been over the past many decades. Suffice it to state that part of
the failures in our past have to do with the excessive need to maintain and
exercise power by the Atse Haile Selassie regime as well as by the Derg. In
both cases, we have witnessed that they stayed in power too long; refused to
listen to the citizenry; and never prepared the country for a peaceful
transition of power in any meaningful manner. The result has been very
familiar: assume power by force; get chased out of office by force. The price the nation has had to pay for this
state of affairs or dysfunction has been enormous. We have lost too many and
too much both in lives and treasury; we have lost enormously in opportunity
cost; and for all intents and purposes, the nation is still backward: we still
can’t feed ourselves; and we have taught the young an incredibly bad lesson:
that disordered force is the norm in Ethiopia. In my opinion, this is a truly
sad state of affairs. On this, I am certain that there is general agreement on
all sides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where We Are Now<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I leave where
we have been and transition to where we are now, I am afraid that I don’t have
too many things that are encouraging either.
Talking about where we are now requires one to take a sort of a survey –
kind of a meta-study of the events and then conditions in which we find our
country today. Let me first state that when we talk about the conditions in our
homeland, we are not waging a vendetta or a personal campaign against anyone;
rather it is simply an examination of the unflattering facts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Though you are
all students of Ethiopian affairs, let me try to summarize the situation in the
following manner. This summary is based on the review of the literature of
important studies; a thorough reading of the opinions and positions of people
in academics, the professions, and most of all, of people in government; and a
personal assessment of events and conditions on the ground in Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The African
Development Bank, in a report on economic outlook in Ethiopia, recently stated
that, “Ethnic Federalism has heightened and transformed historical territorial
conflicts into contemporary inter-regional boundary conflicts. Inter-clan
conflicts have begun to inform perceived or real disenfranchisement and
inequitable distributions of economic and/or political benefits. Radicalism has
also underlain sporadic religious clashes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where we are
today, can charitably be described as, what Thomas Hobbes referred to as “the
chaos of competing enemies”. This chaos of the competing enemies afflicting the
country is a classic strategy manufactured to sow conflict. When resources are short (the resource here
could also be power), people divide, scapegoating one another. What ensues is
the turning of one region against another; one culture against another; older
people against younger ones; one political party against the others; leaders
against members; and one idea against another. Hobbes called this the
pre-social pre-political world. For the ruling party, chaos has become power,
and an opportunity to remake the world in their preferred configuration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The ethnic
stratification we witness in Ethiopia today, is the result of several factors:
the introduction and implementation of the Killil system (a hammer blow to
Ethiopian unity) the appearance or perceived appearance of ethnocentrism; the
competition along ethnic lines for some common goal, such as power or
influence, or a material interest, such as wealth or territory; and the
emergence of deferential power. (See Donald Noel). To make matters worse, there is evidence that
the competition is driven by self-interest and hostility, and would result in
inevitable further stratification and conflict. (See Lawrence Bobo &
Vincent Hutchings). These conditions,
interwoven with what I will call the policy of ambitious domination, have the
potential to produce ethno-national conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where We Have Consensus<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Asserting that
we have a general agreement on some things is a dangerous proposition among any
group much less among Ethiopians who are very passionate about politics, and
even more passionate about their country. Over the past quarter of century, we
have debated as well as grieved. People are sad about what has happened in
Ethiopia, and they have talked and written about all kinds of topics. I have to
admit that this ‘grieving’ process continues even today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I can safely
state, however, that there is an amicable consensus on a number of fronts among
the commenting class, and those who are engaged with the issue. The debates we
have had over the past 25 years—and they were intensive debates–have rendered
some arguments moot, and yielded consensus on others. What are the areas in which
we have general consensus?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is general
consensus that we wish to see a Democratic Ethiopia. We have experimented
enough with other forms of government, and that the future for Ethiopia must
clearly, unambiguously and unalterably be Democratic. An Ethiopia in which democratic institutions
thrive; an Ethiopia whose leaders have an unflinching commitment to democratic
values; and a country whose leaders have purged themselves of all forms of
non-democratic impulses. Of this much, we agree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is
consensus that we wish to see a united Ethiopia. By this we also mean one
country, one people, with differentiated cultures but a common root. Diversity
with a common root!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is
consensus that we wish to have an Ethiopia whose sovereignty is not questioned
(not left to interpretations): not questioned by outsiders; and certainly not
questioned by its children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is
consensus that we wish to have an Ethiopia whose integrity is not violated. By
this, we mean that the assurance of sovereignty is necessary but not sufficient:
it must also be respected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is
consensus that we wish to see a developed Ethiopia. What we wish to have is an
Ethiopia that is socially, economically, technologically and scientifically
developed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is no
consensus on the issue of how to deal with the ruling party—the TPLF/EPRDF. I
hold the very controversial view that when it comes to engaging the government;
we might do better to focus on replacing, reforming, influencing and/or
humanizing the TPLF/EPRDF rather than its complete eradication as some would
wish to have it. The realistic choice that I think we face isn’t really a
choice between an Ethiopia without TPLF/EPRDF and an Ethiopia with only
TPLF/EPRDF. The realistic choice we face is between an Ethiopia where
Democratic values, buttressed with democratic institutions, are supreme; where
human rights are respected and upheld; and where the development process is
all-inclusive versus an Ethiopia where these are lacking. Given that choice,
the former sounds more appealing to me regardless of who rules the country.
This, I believe, is an expansionist (as opposed to a reductionist) view that is
not only proper, but also consistent with the principles of inclusion as well
as that of true democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Furthermore, I
hold the view that the more serious and long-term threats to Ethiopia are not
the TPLF/EPRDF or nationalist forces by themselves. Rather it is the coalescing
threat on the horizon, that which might emerge from the Arab World. The petro
dollar enabled alliance between Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea,
Somalia and Djibouti is likely to become an existential threat, with religion
as the driving force, but the desire to weaken Ethiopia as the primary thrust.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What is Lacking Or What Must Be Done?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For a variety of
reasons, Ethiopians have lacked unity in their responses to the ruling party’s
policy of ambitious domination. This has been true of all segments of society.
We espouse too many divisions; too many plans; too many groups; too much duplication
of effort; and too many personal agendas. It seems to be natural to us, that in
an instant, we fall back on an almost tribal urge to defend our side. And as
you know, sometimes, one choice precludes another. As a consequence, we are
ineffective in our efforts even if we were to come together temporarily. It seems to me that what it is called for
here is the Latin imploration ‘in things important, unity’. Remember our own
adage ‘Dirr Biabir, Anbesa Yasir’. Yet, it seems that when it comes to
meaningful action, the adage gets thrown out the window. There are economic and
non-economic explanations for that state of affairs. But regardless of the explanations, what is
undeniably true is that we remain intangible to those in power if we are not
united. We remain intangible to those that might wish to assist us if we are
not united; and we remain intangible to those that wish to dominate us if we
are not united. The first duty we should have to each other on the matter of
the motherland is unity! Unity based on ‘citizenship’ or some other
super-ordinate goal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The second thing
we must have is reconciliation. One might ask, who is to be reconciled and with
whom? Well, there is plenty of reconciliation that must take place before we
unite for a purpose. To be sure, reconciliation is not just about receiving or
just about corrective action. It is about the future. It is a means of
addressing how we are going to live together; it is a means of taking
constructive action; it is a means of sorting through choices; and it is a
means through which we take responsibility for past mistakes, and pledge to
never ever repeat the offense again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As such, we
should have true and genuine reconciliation between political parties. This
requires that the transgressions, real or imagined, of the past must be buried
for good, and new efforts must be made to start anew. And I am happy to report
that there are groups gearing up and ready to assist with this.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We need
reconciliation between the governed and the governing. This is so because the
ruling party has so much to explain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reconciliation
between the government and the opposition parties is also critical if the
country is to deploy all available talent to overcome the multitude of
challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reconciliation
between Ethiopians and their history is another must. Though this requires time
as well as patience, there is a general feeling that many in Ethiopia and some
outside of it are revising the country’s history to fit current needs. It may
be possible to embellish history, but unnatural to edit it without molesting
the truth. As a consequence, our historians have their work cut out for them in
this regard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We also need
reconciliation on the issue of ‘ethnic federalism’. There are essentially two
recognized methods of dealing with this important issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The first method
is for the government not to acknowledge ethnic, national or social identities
but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals.
(See Jurgen Habermas & Bruce Barry).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It appears to me
that this might be unworkable at the moment.
For one thing, the current generation and the one just before it
primarily see themselves as belonging to an ethnic group first, and the
prominence of ‘citizenship’ is not as strong as we might wish to see it. I have
to concede here that while I can only judge my contemporaries, I can only make
educated guesses about those before or after me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Second, ethnic
groups in general and ethnic cultures in Ethiopia in particular, have moved up
and down the ethnic ‘diacritic’ overtime. And which ‘diacritic’ of ethnicity is
salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and
whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political
situation. (See Ronald Cohen & Joan Vincent). Furthermore, ethnicity
emerges when it is relevant as a means of furthering emergent collective
interests and changes according to political changes in the society. (See Barth
& Seidner for more on this). Unless the political system changes, people
will cling to what appears to them to be safe, comfortable, or even expected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The second
method is for the government to recognize ethnic identities and develop a
process through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated
within the boundaries and/or sovereignty of the country. ( See Charles Taylor
& Will Kymlicka). The Ethiopian government attempted to do the later but
with provisions that have had disastrous consequences. These two points of view
must be reconciled, and, I believe it is possible to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The third thing
that must be done is to provide a unified response to the three questions of:
Land Ownership; Religion; and Ethnic Federalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Before the TPLF
ascended to power and thereafter, it identified these three factors as wounds
of the Ethiopian polity, and decided to turn them into weapons. Initially, the
three issues resonated with the general population that had already been
emotionally decimated by the Derg. While there will be disagreements on the
efficacy, policy wise, of the particular factor, it is safe to say that the
ruling party has used these three factors as a wedge issue between and among
the populous. It is also safe to state that the initial euphoria generated
among the population may have started to ebb as the public began to weigh and
assess the benefits and costs associated with the particular issue. I am going
out on a limb and suggest that the Ethiopian people have not embraced the
‘ethnic’ issue in a way that could make the ruling party claim success. In fact
the opposite might just be true as Ethiopians began to view the ‘ethnicity’
issues as very divisive and threatening national unity and security. Indeed, an honest and correct assessment of
the issue, notwithstanding what the high priests of ‘ethnic federation’ might
think, would lead us to conclude that the ‘ethnic cleansing’ that took place in
parts of the country had repulsed Ethiopians and offended their senses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In all cases,
however, there have not yet been clearly articulated positions or alternatives
provided by either opposition political parties or academe to the vexing issues
of land ownership (as you know, ownership is the prerogative to control); the
role of religion, if any; and viable alternatives to ethnic federalism
acceptable to all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The fourth thing
that must be done is an identification of a new form of ambition. Simply
stated, we need to formulate a new agenda, if you will. The ruling party had
promised Ethiopians the freedom from hunger. That concept has sold well
overseas where outsiders, having tired of watching little hungry kids on their
television sets, had given the government the benefit of doubt. Now that we
know the result of that promise, I will refrain from restating it here again.
But I think that Ethiopians—both inside and outside of the country—wish to
articulate a new form of freedom: the freedom not to have to consider ethnicity
in their daily lives. Simply stated, we need to have a new ambition. Because
all ambitions require forward thrust, perhaps, this will provide the forward
momentum that we desperately lacked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally, we must
establish a post-conflict organization to instigate economic, political,
social, technological as well as scientific reform, and to make sure that the
gains achieved are maintained and advanced; to advance a genuine inclusion
agenda that incorporates actors from all stakeholders, and assure that there is
no backsliding; and to sustain a conflict containment agenda that is proactive
to make sure that the economic costs of violence are contained and managed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How Would We Accomplish These?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In two recent
articles, I have argued that we must have conversation. The conversation we are
going to have should be about the solutions to the problems the country faces,
and would include conversations about politics, power, authoritarianism and
hegemony. If we agree that it is time for solutions, we must also agree that
such solutions must be based on a transparent and realistic account of what
caused the problems in the first place. Here, I don’t mean to overburden our
conversations with a chronology of what took place and when because that won’t
help explain it. What we need to do is examine the motivation for the actions
taken, and on what basis those actions were taken. In trying to do so, all
sides must understand that while the regime in Ethiopia faces considerable
opposition, it also enjoys internal support. Most importantly, the government
also has powerful allies, notably the U.S and the U.K. just to mention two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Having framed
the issue in this manner, a message has to be framed and delivered, and that
message has to be effective. For a
message to be effective, first, it must come from a unified group—a united
opposition (just remember that no one in their right mind would wish to bargain
with an intangible entity that cannot deliver); and second, it must reach and
influence those in control—whether they are elected officials, dictators,
regulators, or private actors. That means, therefore, the communication would
ultimately have to be with the ruling party. This is crucial. Take for instance
women’s issues: to bring about change regarding women’s issues, it is not
enough to talk to women alone. The conversation has to include men as well.
Similarly, if we wish to bring about change in power and hegemony, the
conversation would have to be with those that wield it. Peaceful change will
only take place in Ethiopia with the positive involvement of the ruling party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So what will we
be the modality of the conversation with the ruling party? The Constitution, of
course. I have written before that if there is ever anything we ought to talk
about, it is the constitution. Why the constitution? Because, like it or not,
accept it or not, the current government of Ethiopia is a ‘lawful’ regime and
not an ‘unlawful’ one. It may be unlawful in many of its governing practices,
but is recognized as a lawful regime by every country in the world. Hence, the
focus on the constitution. It should be the center of our effort, the focus of
our energies, and the roadmap to any peaceful change that is likely to bring
about solutions to the problems Ethiopia faces to day. I have never advocated
throwing away the current constitution in its entirety. I hold the opinion that
the current constitution is one of the most liberally worded constitutions out
there—it even allows for ethnic groups to cede from the motherland! How more
liberal can you get? But like everything else, the devil is in the details.
While there are elements of the document that might be useful to retain, there
are also elements of the document that could produce disastrous consequences, and
are damaging to the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although not
directly echoing my call for a constitutional reform, even the Chair of the
Constitutional Assembly, Negaso Gidada, has given recent testimony that the
drafting, approval and implementation of the constitution was fraught with many
errors and problems, and expressed regret at the end product. Of the stunning
admissions is his regret that the people of Ethiopia had no say in the final
document. (See Teshome Abebe; & Negaso Gidada Interview).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Concluding Remarks<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let me summarize
these comments as follows: Our country is distressed, and it needs our
attention. Each person has an opportunity to contribute their talents and
unleash some of their potential (</span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ሀብት</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ያለው</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">በሀብቱ፣</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ጉልበት</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ያለው</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">በጉልበቱ፣</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">እወቅት</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ያለው</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "nyala"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">በእውቀቱ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The ruling party
borrowed strength from the position it held; and from the emotions created by
using ethnicity, the issue of land ownership and religion as weapons. We now
know the consequences of this ploy. But like all borrowed assets, borrowed
strength eventually diminishes as one loses influence with those that they wish
to impress, and the strength turns into weakness. It is at this juncture that
we must ask, “What does the situation demand? What strength, what skill, what
knowledge, and what attitude?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To me, the
situation demands that there must be unity: unity in goals, unity in purpose,
unity in effort, and unity in principles.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The situation
demands the strength of empathy: empathy to seek to understand, and then to be
understood.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The situation
demands the skills to build relationships and build them with consistency and
sincerity, based on national imperatives and not personal agendas.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The situation
further demands the knowledge to be able to teach, to explain, to organize and
to execute.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And finally, the
situation demands an attitude of reconciliation, inclusiveness, democratic
values, and of a new ambition to a new kind of freedom for Ethiopians: the
freedom not to have to consider ethnicity in their daily lives!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thank you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037581855257758640.post-17877330581215684402016-04-07T22:28:00.000+02:002016-04-07T23:00:46.277+02:00Ethiopian regime has a 25-years-long bloody legacy <div style="text-align: center;">
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<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">By Degeufe Hailu</a></div>
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<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;">April 7, 2016</a><br />
<a class="news" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="font-family: arial, verdana; font-size: 14px;"><br /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Nations cannot realize
the full promise of independence until they fully protect the rights of their
people,” Barrack Obama, president of the United States, said on tour to Kenya
and Ethiopia last year. This is ironic, because on that trip he failed to criticize
human rights abuses by the Ethiopian government, which he hailed as
“democratically elected”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopians are
very familiar with the government's attempts to oppress any opposition. The
Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) government took power in 1991. All
opponents are persecuted as terrorist collaborators.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today, Ethiopia
stands as a nation in contempt of human rights. According to the Committee to
Protect Journalists, Ethiopia has the second highest number of journalists
forced into exile between 2010 and 2015 after Syria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Evidence of the
denial of freedom of expression includes the arrest and incarceration of Zone 9
bloggers in 2014. Their name is a reference to the eight divisions of the
infamous Kaliti Prison — suggesting that Ethiopia as whole is effectively the
jail's ninth division. The arrest of the bloggers for publication of news and opinion
pieces that were critical of the government and its repressive entourage
exposed the country's non-existent due process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last June,
Andargachew Tsige, the secretary-general of Ginbot 7, a group banned for
allegedly advocating the armed overthrow of the Ethiopian government, was
deported to Ethiopia from Yemen while in transit to Eritrea. This transfer
violated international law prohibiting sending someone to a country where they
are likely to face torture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tsige has been
detained without access to family members, legal counsel or consular
representation, which he is entitled to as a British citizen. His detention
location, to date, is unknown.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Terrorizing
those who publically criticize the government's endeavors, however, is not
limited to media outlets. In April 2015, peaceful protests in Oromia over the
government's planned expansion of the Addis Ababa municipal boundary were met
with excessive force, including shootings. Many protesters perished, while
others continue to be detained without charge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Protest against
displacement from land and family is not new to Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under the
“villagisation program” 1.5 million rural people have been relocated under the
guise of improving their access to basic services. One example of this forced
displacement is in the Gambella region, for which relocation was accompanied by
insufficient compensation and consultations, and violence including beatings
and arbitrary arrests. This was just in the first-year of the “villagisation
program”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In subsequent
years, 200,000 indigenous persons from 240,000 hectares of land in the lower
Omo Valley were displaced without compensation or consultation, due to the
government's development of sugar plantations. The clearance of land, sold to
foreign interests, year-in year-out has lined the pockets of the government,
without regard for the region, or the Ethiopian people in general.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Inherent in this
inculcating of terror, is the need to maintain the status quo. This is evident
in the landslide victory in June 2015 of the ruling party and its insipid
allies. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, a rebrand of the
TPLF, overwhelmingly ejected the only opposition parliamentarian from office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This result was
completely expected, there is no multi-party system in Ethiopia. It's just
fake,” said Taye Negussie, a sociology professor at Addis Ababa University.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">President
Obama's visit to Kenya and Ethiopia was to whitewash a continent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">US collaboration
with the TPLF, a party that has expelled all opposition and is dedicated to a
reign of pure terror, has a long history — Obama and three of his predecessors
have visited.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The people in
the Horn of Africa can live in harmony and in peace, and flourish through the
development of a stable region, without the need for foreign interference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The mission to
oust the oppressive regime in Ethiopia, is aimed to stop a culture of fear and
suspicion, especially if we want to enter into a serious problem-solving
dialogue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We need to be
united participants of the political process and not the subjects of a
repressive and terrorizing government, to address our problems genuinely and
solve them definitively.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Samson Seifuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11535082094152239151noreply@blogger.com0