Taking the war on terror to Africa

Here is an article from Newsweek International on US military expansion into Africa, what it has thus far meant for the Horn and its implications for the futrure...


Click here to read it.

How loyal is loyal enough?

This week Time Magazine gave Meles Zenawi an excellent PR opportunity. The interviewer, either not having done his homework or intentionally*, left many opportunities to challenge Meles’ assertions. For example after Meles’s assertions on what is happening in Ogaden the interviewer stirred clear of mentioning specific evidence and eyewitness accounts that have been making the rounds in the media. The interview was very much about getting Meles’s message out than getting to the truth about what is happening in the Ogaden and in Ethiopia in general.

But that wasn’t all that surprising. We are used to Meles’s spin and perhaps can even understand his rationale; but what about that of his Ethiopian supporters? Do a quick reading of the pro-TPLF/EPRDF websites and this is what you will find: they contend that the New York Times and the Washington Post are unreliable; institutions such as Amnesty International and HRW are liars; the Red Cross, WFP, and MSF are just pure fabricators of news bent on destroying the good name of the Ethiopian regime, or worse, supporters of local armed movements. Everyone who says the Ethiopian regime is doing wrong are themselves wrong or biased. The only voice to be trusted is that of the [impartial?] EPRDF leadership. Loyalty has replaced any sense of rationality.

It is inescapable that the legacy of EPRDF will also be the legacy of its supporters. Ignoring what is happening or vocally supporting the EPRDF under some pretext as it commits these atrocities on Ethiopian-Somalis is to be party to its actions. It is even more so since you are perhaps the only group of Ethiopians that have sway on EPRDF's actions. Would Meles’s word be good enough for you if these reports were about areas that your families lived in? Would this unquestioning loyalty be the norm?

The response from the rest of the Ethiopian community, especially from those of us that are abroad has been disappointing to say the least. The abuses in the Ogaden are a test for all Ethiopians who believe in a shared identity. Where is the fervor of two years ago when many were gunned down in the streets of Addis? Where are the protesters, and the organizers that were holding signs and vigils at the White House? Where is the opposition? As Ethiopians, how each of us individually and collectively responds to the abuses of the government in the Ogaden will also be our legacy.

We have read reports of how thousands are going to the Airport tomorrow to welcome the Kinijit leaders. They certainly deserve a very warm welcome, but our brothers and sisters in the Ogaden need our presence and voice even more. Now is the time to fight for all the victims of EPRDF, to do all we can to stop what is happening in the Ogaden. As residents and citizens of the US it is our responsibility to make people aware about what is happening, to make people question the cozy relationship the US has with the brutal Ethiopian government. The time to show that we are loyal to the discourse of a shared Ethiopian identity is now.

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*This account of how governments and their lobbyists operate, including building their image by using “friendly” press, explains how this may have happened.

ICRC expulsion from the Ogaden

The Ethiopian government has now graduated from expelling election observers and journalists to expelling the Red Cross. Why? Because they bear witness to its brutal and inhumane strategy of “starving out the enemy.” The TPLF’s conviction to sink lower at every opportunity would have been amusing if its consequences were not so dire for the Ethiopian people.

It seems at every turn the TPLF is copying from the Dergue play book.

Dagmawi writes:

Who could have imagined that what the Derg did in 1984 would be repeated again 23 years later. Lets have a great Millenium party in Addis Ababa while thousands of Ogadeni-Ethiopians huddle on the bare ground starving to death!

Redeem Ethiopia recently wrote:

Distracting Ethiopians and the international community with large expensive and year-long Millennium parties is now crucial. Mengistu attempted such a distraction with a large celebration of the tenth anniversary of the revolution ... Is Meles so inspired by Mengistu’s old strategies that he will do the same?

Related:
BBC
New York Times
Dagmawi
Last Post

And the Wonk is back!!!

Running in circles

The Ethiopian famine of 1983-1985, preserved in popular memory as a natural disaster of biblical proportions, most fiercely struck those parts of the country that harbored irredentist movements. In a stunning, but telling, rejoinder to international pity for the purportedly hapless Ethiopian government, the Ethiopian foreign minister told a U.S. charge' d'affaires that “food is a major element in our strategy against the secessionists."

David Marcus, Famine Crimes in International Law, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 97, No. 2. (Apr., 2003), pp. 245-281.

Western diplomats have been urging Ethiopian officials to lift the blockade, arguing that the many people in the area are running out of time. “It’s a starve-out-the-population strategy,” said one Western humanitarian official, who did not want to be quoted by name because he feared reprisals against aid workers. “If something isn’t done on the diplomatic front soon, we’re going to have a government-caused famine on our hands.”

New York Times
July 21,2007

The Kaliti Apology Letter

I am wondering why none of the media that has aligned itself with the Ethiopian opposition is not commenting on the apology letter. It seems people are not reading the letter carefully and are rather following the EPRDF spin on it. The letter publicized by Walta expresses regret for the CUD leadership's proposal to set up a transitional government to replace the current regime in a manner not stipulated in the constitution [the transitional government was supposed to include EPRDF]. In the same letter they agree that any change from here on would have to be made through the mechanisms provided for in the Constitution. The letter clearly stays away from words that are associated with force, or violence and simply says 'change'(lemelewet) rather than 'overturn' (megelbet).

The spinners at Aiga and Bereket Simon have of course seized upon the purposely vague wording [probably a result of days of negotiations] to make it look like the prisoners of conscious have agreed with the government's prosecutors. But that is clearly not the case.

Anyone listening?

Addis Fortune has a bold editorial that touches on a broad range of issues including the capacity of opposition parliamentarians to participate meaningfully, the leadership vacuum among the opposition, the state of free speech in Parliament and in Ethiopia in general, the willingness of the public to participate in politics and policy, and the virtues of changing the way things are done. Read it here.

የቅኔ ውበት - yeQne Wubet

The following are taken from የቅኔ ውበት - yeQne Wubet - a compilation of all the poems of Kebede Mikael.

የሠነፍ ልመና - Ye Senef Limena

The following is taken from Ye Iwqet Bilichta - የእውቀት ፡ ብልጭታ

Somalia, Zimbabwe and US Media

On March 29 when I turned on my car radio to listen to NPR, the news started with coverage of events in Zimbabwe. As usual the story wasn't good. The radio reported how Zimbabwean security had broken into the opposition headquarters and may have arrested the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai; this coming just a few days after he had been arrested and beaten.

While this was a sad story that needed to be told, it paled in comparison to what a US ally started doing that very day in Somalia.

Starting on March 29 the Ethiopian army stationed in Somalia began new military operations in the capital that led to the death, injury and displacement of thousands of civilians. According to Somali media outlets Ethiopian forces were indiscriminately shelling residential areas. Quite conveniently this news was omitted from the headlines of US news outlets.

NPR for example didn't cover the events in Somalia until April 3rd*, even then omitting much of the detail that Somali News Outlets such as Shabelle Network were reporting. In the mean time it had carried stories on Zimbabwe on April 1 and April 2**. The BBC to its credit did a better job (atleast online). For those of us in the US, unless we sought out the news on Somalia on the web, there was little evidence of what transpired in Mogadishu over four days of heavy fighting.

It is outrageous that supposedly impartial media outlets omit and editorialize news to keep the names of loyal representatives of US power, such as Meles Zenawi, out of the spotlight. Such blatantly partial coverage, even of supposedly "remote" areas erodes trust in the institutions that are essential to the working of free societies.
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*Just to make sure that I didn't merely miss the coverage, I did a search on their website which yielded no results for Somalia during Mar 29-April 2.

**It should by now be obvious that the coverage of Zimbabwe has nothing to do with human rights or democracy and everything to do with powerful western interests that want to see change in the land reform policies that Mugabe and Zanu-PF are pushing.

The morning lineup - follow up

In the post titled the morning lineup I had listed the three Ethiopian national anthems that have been consecutively used since 1930. An anonymous commenter had remarked that Imperial Ethiopia's national anthem had accompanying anthems that were sang during taking down and raising the flag. He has kindly emailed me the lyrics which I reproduce below. Thanks A.