07/07/2019
Tedla Habtemariam

In Abiy’s Ethiopia, the ethnic brigades in pursuit of further fragmentation along ethnic lines, are working overtime to solidify and entrench themselves while his government is persevering to diffuse the poison of ethnicity and re-orient the country towards an inclusive pan-Ethiopian polity. The ethnic elites across the country (TPLF, OLF, Sidama LF?) are aligning themselves in overt and covert ways to thwart any attempt by Abiy, his supporters and the Ethiopian people in general to make the country livable and governable.   On the one hand, Abiy with his inclusive politics strives to make the whole of Ethiopia a nation for all its citizens, irrespective of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The ethnic entrepreneurs, on the other hand, want ethnic and linguistic differentiations to get accentuated even further, deeper and broader. The current ethno-linguistic federation, they argue, should be loosened to a confederation, just shy of a tiny jump to an ethnically pure, mono-lingual, mono-cultural sovereign nation-state, which needless to say is their original intent in the first place.

It’s in this light that we should see the dangerous and illegal ethnic youth movement in the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama. The movement was heating up in that part of the region for some time now. Some young people in Sidama, and specifically in the Southern capital Awassa, are agitating for statehood, with the multi-ethnic regional capital Awassa strictly under their control. To realize such eventuality, they are threatening to take a unilateral step in declaring Sidama as a separate ethnic state. This is clearly in contravention to written laws and working procedures of the nation. Moreover, this youth movement has given the federal government a set date at which time they’ll carry out the intended unilateral declaration should the latter fail to fulfill their demands. It’s not lost on us that while the young in Sidama (known as “Ejeto” meaning “hero” in the Sidama language) are fronting this illegal movement, the elites who are the brains behind Ejeto are never heard from; and if they are heard from by indirection, what they say is always in the generalities of supporting the movement, not in the specifics of endorsing actionable items such as the unilateral decision stated above.

The federal government on its part has asserted in no uncertain terms that it’d crush any attempt by the Sidama youth in Awassa if the latter attempt anything in contravention of the constitution. Its own solution, as stated by the prime minister, is to implement a nation-wide corrective that’s a comprehensive and judicious arrangement based on the recommendations of the newly formed Administrative Boundaries and Identity Issues Commission. The expectation is that the Commission will do a solid, professional and non-partisan study, and the government and all political actors including civic organization will use it as a basis to rectify the highly politically charged and gerrymandered ethnic enclaves handed down to us by the remnants of the leftist and ever short-sighted Ethiopian Student Movement of the 1960’s.

Coming back to the immediate problem at hand, I think it’s fair to say that at this point Abiy and Ejeto are effectively staring at each other, and along with the rest of us, at the dateline. TPLF and OLF, sensing that Abiy and the historic Ethiopian state are weak, may push the Sidama elites to give the go-ahead to Ejeto and call Abiy’s bluff. Will the Ejeto take the bait and make a deadly mistake? Nobody knows, but we can guess few things. Ethnic propaganda being what it is, we can suspect the youth are promised a lot once the elites are able to exclusively control Awassa. Jobs, businesses, housing, you name it. That’s how tribalism telegrams its message: “You’re deprived because the others dispossessed you of your rightful properties, denied your rights and oppressed you in your own ‘homeland’”.

The grievance machine had been tuned for generations and the real action will then begin once the ethnic elements believe they have the upper hand. Reports say that it’s doing some of this already, but if the elites believe that the prize is in sight, it can be safe to say to that the Ejeto will graduate itself into bullying, intimidation, and harassing the non-Sidama. The multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, tolerant Awassa will descend to chaos and bloodshed. The non-Sidamas will subsequently be pressured to leave the city by the elites; as experienced hands, they will couch the language so it reads, “We can’t guarantee your safety; we advise you to go back to your ‘own land’”. All this so that in the end, the perpetrators will bask in the mono-ethnic nirvana the cleansing is supposed to usher in.

Some people may think such a scenario is an exaggeration, and unlikely to happen. But I think ethnic cleansing in Awassa is a distinct possibility if, for instance, Abiy blinks and fails to deliver on his words. Take, for instance, the case of Gedeo in Guji, just next door. The Gedeo suffered significant persecution in the hands of the OLF fighters and its sympathizers among Oromo nationalists. Their houses got burnt, and they had to flee their homes. They may have been displaced for a better part of the year, if not more. OLF, either by proxy or directly, had done similar things in Harar and Burayu. Of course, the Sidama ethnic elites likely have taken some lessons. Much as the OLF wants to cleanse non-Oromos from what thinks is its homeland, the Sidama elites, as its ideological brethren (if you glorify tribalism as ideology), will certainly try out some of the same things in what it considers as its homeland; in Awassa above all. It knows time is on its side, and it will work through the cleansing once it’s able to achieve its Killil and the prize Awassa.

This is a frightening and, potentially disintegrative outcome for the country at large. We should dread the aftermath of such an outcome. If Ejeto succeeds in realizing Sidama + Awassa, this effectively means open season for everyone. If Ejeto can do it, so can anybody: a federal government that shrugs its shoulders when it happens in Sidama is expected just to stand aside when others anywhere else do it, by whatever means.

On the other hand, what the federal government is actually threatening to do is also scary. No one but a cruel person wishes death and mayhem on the Sidama youth of Awassa; after all this is what ‘crushing’ means. And given that no effort as far as moderation has been publicized from either side so far, the increasingly likely outcome of the stand-off seems nightmarish. At this point, one may ask what will come of their declaration anyway? Let Ejeto say whatever it wants, and at the end of the event, they’ll go home, and the next day, it’ll be business as usual. But I don’t believe it’ll end there. My guess is that they’ll start acting on the implications of their decision. Which is to say that they’ll start taking over the security, and the local administration – as a proxy for the elites, that is. Which is to say that the cleansing proper will then ensue.

What to do then? Avoidable bloodshed on the one hand and ethnic cleansing and massive conflict on the other. As far as I can tell I think Abiy’s least bad option (there seems to be no good option) is to bring in a significant federal police and security to Awassa and, if need be, to smaller towns in the Sidama zone. This will help forestall a mis-adventure by the Ejeto youth. The show of force should be intimidating enough so the youth should be frustrated from having any second thoughts. In such a manner, the lives of the youth will be spared and Abiy’s government will have thwarted a crisis in the making. Also, given that the timeline is rather short, the decision to move in the federal forces should be made in the next few days. The federal forces should plan on staying in Awassa and securing its peace for a foreseeable future, at least until the Commission gives its recommendation and the government redraws the administrative boundaries along sensible lines. It pains me to write that the federal force should exclude ethinic Sidama for obvious reasons – shame on us, but this is the current reality in our beloved country.

At this point, let me digress to make a larger point: Abiy’s government or any future government should never let major urban centers to be under any one ethnic group. Urban centers are by their very nature inclusive, tolerant, diverse, multi ethnic and multi lingual melting pots. They are no one’s homeland; no body ‘owns’ them. If they ‘belong’ to anyone, it’s to the residents of the particular time in question. And as such, they should be administered by business savvy and entrepreneurial mayors and other elected officials chosen by residents of the city.  They should not be allowed to be corruption machines for unproductive, incompetent, entitled and narcissistic ethnic elites. Much as Addis Ababa is melting pot of Ethiopians, so should be Awassa, Nazret and Dire Dawa. In a decade or so, the odds-on is that the nation’s economy will likely have already taken off, and in the process lift most other Ethiopian cities (Arba Minch, Jimma, Dessie, etc.) to a similar melting pot. In the ensuing economic prosperity, we’ll reverse the centrifugal ethnic force threating to do us apart.

To wrap up, throughout human history cities have served as economic engines of nations. Properly administered cities draw all sorts of businesses and ambitious people from near and far. Their primary goal is to facilitate a conducive atmosphere so the city’s residents engage in productive pursuits with equal opportunity; not to alienate parts of the residents. Nobody should have precedence nor given exclusive rights to anything. Merit and only merit should be the measure of all public offices, not some automatic ‘ethnic right’. In other words, the most competent person must be rewarded for his efforts and initiatives, irrespective of ethnicity. Even for the disadvantaged among the ‘natives’ such a person of ability will do far more than an entitled person selected from ones’ own ethnic group. Ethnicity should not even be acknowledged let alone be used as a measuring stick. If London’s mayor can be a person whose parents are non-white and non-Christian (neither of which describe the British in any historic sense), it’s pointlessly retrogressive to argue that people in Ethiopia should first pass the ethnic test to live and serve in a particular place.

But we all know that the ethnic elites have mastered the art of nursing ethnic grievances. We also know nursing ethnic grievances is not a productive pursuit – it doesn’t create wealth, nor does it promote economic wellbeing. And as any honest Ethiopian can see, our nation’s problem is at its root economic; it’s not failing to affirm ethnic right of this sort or another. After all, in the times we live in, no one is forbidden to speak in his or her mother tongue, nor forced to dress or dance in only a certain way. Except for an extremely tiny ethnic elites, the overwhelming citizenry (virtually 100%, and yes including the people of Tigray despite what we’re being told), just want a secure livelihood and a betterment of their lives. The rest is petty-bourgeois random noise.

The post Handling the Sidama Crisis appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Michal Avera-Samuel says systemic and societal racism has plagued the Jewish African population for decades, from police brutality to education woes

By TANI GOLDSTEIN

Ethiopian-Israeli community leader Michal Avera-Samuel seems to lack for nothing: She’s an academic and an executive who resides in the upscale city of Hod Hasharon in central Israel.

The organization she heads, the Fidel Association for the Education and Social Integration of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, does not focus on social protest, but rather on youth centers, youth leadership programs, parenting workshops, teaching the heritage of Ethiopian Jewry, assisting Ethiopian at-risk youngsters, and improving the integration and education of the community.

But Avera-Samuel took to the streets last week, joining thousands of Ethiopian-Israelis protesting police violence nationwide.

Ethiopian Jews, who trace their lineage to the ancient Israelite tribe of Dan, first arrived in Israel in large numbers in the 1980s, when Israel secretly airlifted them to the Jewish state to save them from war and famine in the Horn of Africa.

Michal Avera-Samuel. (Courtesy)

The new arrivals struggled with the transition from a developing African country to the increasingly high-tech Israel. Over time, many in the community, which today numbers around 150,000 out of the Jewish state’s 9 million citizens, have been able to make their way into mainstream Israeli society, serving in the military and police and making inroads in politics, sports and entertainment. But the community continues to suffer from widespread poverty and what many decry as racism, discrimination, and routine police harassment.

‘The younger generation won’t be silenced’

The fatal shooting of 19-year-old Solomon Tekah on June 30 by an off-duty police officer ignited the latest wave of protests. The demonstrations quickly turned violent as hundreds of protesters clashed with police, burned tires and blocked major roads in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. Dozens of police officers were injured and over 100 protesters were arrested.

Still, Avera-Samuel maintains that she joined the protest not as an act of solidarity with someone else’s plight, but for herself.

Police detain protesters at a rally against police violence following the death of 19-year-old Solomon Tekah in Tel Aviv, July 3, 2019. (Neuberg/Flash90)

Speaking with The Times of Israel, she explained that the everyday reality of the Ethiopian community in Israel is one that “outsiders can’t even fathom. There’s horrible, daily racism that takes place right under your nose.”

“When I walk around in my own neighborhood, not a month goes by without a few times that women driving SUVs stop me and offer me jobs as a cleaner. If someone is looking for a cleaning lady, I’m the obvious candidate, right?” she said.

“If my nephews, who come from a good family, say so much as one word to a policeman, they get smacked around. How would you react if someone slapped your child? Why is it that anything an Ethiopian kid does ends up with a police record? Why should I be afraid of any encounter my children may have with the police?” said Avera-Samuel.

Israeli police officers at a protest following the shooting death of 19-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli Solomon Tekah, in Tel Aviv, July 3, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Avera-Samuel’s organization — whose name, Fidel, means “alphabet” in Amharic —  works with schools, “including those with a large number of Ethiopian students and schools in affluent sectors, and we can see the difference,” she said.

Parents who are empowered and connected can get the teachers and principals they want, even in the public education system, she said, adding that teachers and principals who are assigned to Ethiopian schools consider themselves exiled, or see it as a stop en route to retirement.

“I see how the entire system keeps failing the Pygmalion test,” Avera-Samuel said, referring to the phenomenon whereby others’ expectations of an individual have an impact on the individual’s performance.

According to Avera-Samuel, this affects test scores, scholastic achievements, the teachers’ attitude, and the country’s standardized Meitzav tests themselves.

“We live in a self-fulfilling pit of low expectations,” she said.

The Meitzav achievement exam, administered to fifth and eighth graders in Israeli schools, tests language, math, and science skills.

An Israeli woman holds a poster of Solomon Tekah, a young man of Ethiopian origin who was killed by an off-duty police officer, as members of the Israeli Ethiopian community block the main entrance to Jerusalem on July 2, 2019 to protest his killing. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

“Like all of us, I’m subjected [to insults], and I take it, and ignore it. We all do, until we can’t take it anymore,” Avera-Samuel said. “My parents’ generation suffered in silence. My generation suffered in silence until we couldn’t remain silent anymore. The younger generation that grew up here with this unjust reality won’t be silenced.”

“Police brutality is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s real, it exists, but it’s just part of what’s pushing us to protest again and again. It’s literally just a symptom of the overall mindset,” she said.

Slow and steady

Avera-Samuel said that the protesters’ demands are simple.

“We demand that the police investigate themselves, do some soul searching and draw the necessary conclusions,” she said, adding that law enforcement should ultimately completely stop the “over-policing” of Ethiopians and Ethiopian youth.

“[We want] policemen dealing with a suspect, a criminal, or just an Ethiopian citizen to exercise the exact same discretion they would if they were dealing with anyone else. That is not the case today,” Avera-Samuel said.

Israel’s Ethiopian community is arguably one of the most outspoken in the country, and has campaigned and held public protests about a number of issues over the last 34 years. Though progress has been slow, Avera-Samuel said that the demonstrations do yield results.

Ethiopians and supporters light candles during a protest against police violence and discrimination following the death of 19-year-old Solomon Tekah in Tel Aviv, July 3, 2019. (Neuberg/Flash90)

Invoking a series of protests that took place in the early 1990s, Avera-Samuel said that as a 9-year-old she joined demonstrations against Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. The ultra-Orthodox establishment was questioning Ethiopian Jews’ lineage and demanding they undergo a rigorous conversion process.

“Sometimes I do have disparaging thoughts,” she said. “We’ve been protesting for so long and reality stays the same. But yes, it helps. Some things have changed thanks to previous protests. The Rabbinate eased its conversion demands after the protest, and the horrible procedure regarding blood donations stopped, for the most part, as a result of the protests.”

In 1996 the public found out that Israeli hospitals were secretly disposing of blood donations from Ethiopian-Israelis over fears of diseases contracted in Africa. The revelation outraged the community and some 10,000 people demonstrated across from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. It was, at the time, the largest protest by the Ethiopian community in Israel.

The public outcry over the revelation also led to the formation of a state commission of inquiry. Its findings ended the practice, but its assertion that the disposal of the blood was not motivated by racism remains controversial.

Ethiopian Israelis, family members and activists protrest following the death of 19-year-old Ethiopian, Solomon Tekah who was shot and killed last night by an off-duty police officer in Kiryat Haim, July 1, 2019. (Meir Vaknin/Flash90)

Avera-Samuel noted that in the past four years, “We’ve been focusing our protests on the situation in schools, and the government has been inclined to change things. We can see some change there. It’s very slow, because changes in education take time, but things are changing.

“The only [state] body that won’t hear of it, that won’t revise its practices, is the police. They act like they know everything and that’s why the current protest is focused on the police,” she said.

‘A rock and a hard place’

Avera-Samuel said that the large proportion of Ethiopian-Israelis serving in the police force — double their ratio in the civilian population — further complicates matters.

“I have friends and relatives who serve in the police and they’re having a very difficult time,” she said. “They’re caught between a rock and a hard place. They are part of the system, but they also know all too well how the other side feels. They know how the system works from the inside, and they see the failures, the arrogance, and the refusal to listen and think.

“It’s important to stress that there is a world of difference between the attitude of Ethiopian policemen on the ground and how they communicate with us, and the way other police officers conduct themselves,” she said.

Israeli police officers at a protest following the death of 19-year-old Solomon Tekah, an Ethiopian-Israeli who was shot and killed a few days before in Kiryat Haim by an off-duty police officer, in Tel Aviv, July 2, 2019. (Adam Shuldman/Flash90)

“An Ethiopian policeman listens to the members of his community and treats them completely differently,” said Avera-Samuel. “He tries to minimize the damage and solve problems differently. Ethiopian teens involved in a brawl or any other incident are also more likely to show respect and listen to a policeman from the community.”

However, Avera-Samuel said, it was not feasible to deploy policemen from the Ethiopian community to confront protesters last week.

“The [police force] couldn’t put them in that position,” she said. “They have enough of a hard time as it is. The average ‘Ferengi’ experienced the protests as a nightmare. Their routine was interrupted and there was violence,” she said, using the Amharic term for Westerner.

Ethiopian protesters in Tel Aviv blocked a major junction on Highway 20 and the ensuing gridlock left thousands of drivers stranded for over five hours. Moreover, when protesters clashed with the police, several cars were set on fire.

The community as a whole does not condone violence, Avera-Samuel said.

A police car burns as members of the Ethiopian community in Israel clash with the police during in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on July 2, 2019, during a protest against the killing of Solomon Tekah, a young man of Ethiopian origin, who was killed by an off-duty police officer.(Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

“I denounce these acts and I’m actually working around the clock, talking with teens in an effort to prevent such violent incidents,” she said. “But these were a handful of vandalism incidents in a reality where thousands protested out of pain and anger, instead of enjoying their summer vacation, so obviously that’s what made headlines.”

“The comments online are also infuriating. We’re not waging an election campaign and we don’t care whether the public does or doesn’t ‘support’ us,” she said, referring to the upcoming snap general elections set for September 17. “It’s not like I felt any massive ‘public support’ until now. As far as I’m concerned, don’t ‘support’ us, just change your attitude.”

This article was adapted from a version published on Zman Yisrael, the Hebrew sister site of The Times of Israel.

The post Ethiopian-Israeli community has hit boiling point, leading activist says appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Ethiopia arrested journalist Elias Gebru Godana last Saturday. It is reported that police arrested him in relation to the Bahir Dar incident and filed his case under the Anti-terrorism Proclamation

The post Ethiopian Police arrested journalist Elias Gebru Godana last Saturday appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

BY SELAM KIDANE & MARTIN PLAUT

Since the historic accord last year, the border has closed again and little has changed. Patience among Eritreans is wearing thin.

A year ago today, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrived in the Eritrea capital of Asmara. Eritreans lined the streets, ecstatic to greet the leader of the country with whom they had been locked in conflict for two decades.

It was a truly landmark visit, ending years of hostility. From 1998 to 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea had fought a border war in which some 100,000 people were killed. The resulting peace deal should have led to a renewal of relations as well as an exchange of prisoners and territory. But Ethiopia’s then Prime Minister Meles Zenawi refused to accept the loss of Badme, the village that had triggered the war, and there followed 20 years of stalemate. Troops from both countries stared across the thousand-kilometre border in a state of “no war, no peace”.

Prime Minister Abiy’s decision last year to recognise Badme as belonging to Eritrea opened the way for his visit to Asmara. His welcome could hardly have been warmer. Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki – renowned for hardly cracking a smile – was seen laughing and joking with his opposite number. Eritrean television showedAbiy meeting Isaias’s family and playing with his grandchildren.

Less than a week later, the Eritrean leader was in Addis Ababa where the welcome was just as warm. “This is a historic day for all of us,” President Isaias declared at a lunch with Abiy at the National Palace. “Anyone who thinks the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia are separated is considered as naïve from now on.”

In September, the relationship was then cemented by the formal signing of a peace deal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, witnessed by the Saudi King and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Abiy and Isaias agreed that the Ethiopia-Eritrea borders would be opened, relations normalised, and the disputes of the past put behind them. What could possibly go wrong?

A year later

For a while, all went well. Ethiopians flew into Eritrea for joyous and tearful reunions with their families. Traders crossed the border to sell their goods in Eritrean towns. Businesses on both sides of the border boomed. Mebrhit Gebrehans, a middle-aged Ethiopian woman welcomed the transformation, telling the BBC: “What we fear is war. We love peace. When the Eritreans come to this market, I welcome them with a smiling face.” Eritreans were able to get into Ethiopia easily by taxi, and thousands made the journey, with up to 500 people a day leaving for a better life.

A year on, however, the situation has been reversed. The borders are officially closed. No explanation has been given for this decision, but it appears that Eritrean authorities feared that members of the opposition were crossing over from Ethiopia where they had been stationed for many years. The main remaining sign of the peace deal are the daily Ethiopian Airlines flights that are only available to well-off Eritreans, over the age of 50, with official clearance to leave the county.

Inside Eritrea, there have been few benefits from peace beyond the ability to find everyday items brought into the country by Ethiopian traders using unofficial trade routes. The government’s policy of indefinite national service for all Eritreans remains intact. There has been no apparent progress towards officially regulating the border, a task that was meant to be tackled by joint commission from both countries. And the Eritrean parliament, which was disbanded in February 2002, has not reassembled and has had no opportunity to scrutinise or ratify the treaty signed by President Isaias.

Meanwhile, some Eritreans are worrying about their country’s independence, won at such a high price in 1993. They watched nervously last year as Abiy and Isaias pledged to share the key Eritrean port of Assab, with the French promising to help Ethiopia rebuild its navy. They have also noted that some Ethiopians started producing unofficial maps of the region that didn’t recognise the sovereignty of Eritrea.

Growing frustrations

Today then, even Eritreans who had hitherto supported the government or at least refrained from criticising it, believing this to be the best approach to safeguarding Eritrea’s sovereignty, have begun changing their stand. Members of the diaspora have launched a campaign under the slogan ‘Enough!’ This has captured popular imagination, particularly among young people who were born and raised outside the country. The activists’ creativity has resulted in an unrelenting social media campaign calling for change. Rallies and unprecedentedly large gatherings of Eritreans abroad have taken up their call.

These campaigns have been echoed inside the country, with youths writing slogans on walls protesting against indefinite conscription. Thousands of leaflets have been distributed internally, while ordinary Eritreans now openly watch and debate issues covered by opposition radio and television shows broadcast from abroad to growing audiences.

The Eritrean government has retaliated by trying to identify and quash all potential sources of encouragement for popular protest. The regime has, for example, targeted religious groups, perhaps remembering the strong protests in 2017 when the government cracked down on a Muslim school in Asmara. It has disrupted Christian prayer meetings, arrested members of “unregistered” churches, and even detained outspoken priests and monks from the “registered” Orthodox church for supporting the Patriarch of the Orthodox church, who has been under house arrest since 2005. The government has also closed 33 hospitals, clinics and health stations run by the Catholic Church of Eritrea in apparent retaliation for pastoral remarks calling for a peace dividend for the people and the opening up of democratic space.

While Eritreans are growing restless, Ethiopians have their own problems to attend to. The northern region of Tigray has repeatedly refused to allow heavy artillery to be moved away from the border, fearing an Eritrean attack. Meanwhile, more than two million Ethiopians have been displaced by ethnic conflict and there was recently a largely unexplained apparent coup attempt in the Amhara region, with the simultaneous killing of the army chief of staff in Addis Ababa.

A year on, the euphoria of the Eritrea-Ethiopia peace deal has evaporated. A sullen, tense cloud now hangs over relations between Asmara and Addis Ababa, with both nations watching developments along the border with concern.

The post Eritrea and Ethiopia: A year of peace, a year of dashed hopes appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

9 July 2019

Amnesty International

The Ethiopian government risks rolling back the great progress it made on media freedom last year, said Amnesty International, after the government announced plans to charge journalists and media outlets for their reporting on the armed forces.

The post Ethiopia: New journalist arrests put press freedom gains at risk appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Cautious optimism one year on since the Eritrean president and the Ethiopian prime minister signed a new agreement.

by Elias Gebreselassie

9 Jul 2019

Badme – Gebreselassie Woldeabzigi, a 72-year-old Ethiopian, fled his hometown in Badme, a border town of around 2,000 people in May 1998.

It was the start of a two-year war between Ethiopiaand Eritrea that killed an estimated 70,000 people from both sides.

The conflict ended after the two countries signed a peace deal in Algiers in December 2000.

The sandy plains of Badme and its surrounding areas were scenes of trench warfare which killed thousands of soldiers and, despite the December 2000 peace deal, violent and bloody outbreaks between the two armies continued for years.

Badme town, currently controlled by Ethiopia but claimed by its northern neighbour Eritrea, was considered the main symbol of the bitter standoff the two east Africancountries were engaged in until July last year, when Eritrean President Isaias Afwerkiand Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a new peace agreement.

Gebreselassie, whose wife died during the two-year conflict, says he is conflicted about the current diplomatic thaw.

While he is glad that the guns have been laid down, he worries about having to flee his home for a second time. 

“I’m happy long-lost friends were able to meet with each other after 20 years of separation, however, I will not be happy if I’m asked to give up on Badme,” he said.

“I have heard rumours the Ethiopian government has agreed to give up Badme. If that happens, I fear the repeat of the displacement I endured in May 1998.”

Located at the edge of a triangular strip of Ethiopian land and surrounded by Eritrea, Badme is a town that seems to be suspended between the promise of a peace deal and uncertainty.

Our culture is the same, our faces are the same, our language is the same. The Ethiopian and Eritrean governments should bring their agreements down to the people and create on-the-ground reconciliation.

GEBRESELASSIE WOLDEABZIGI, ELDERLY ETHIOPIAN

In recent years, it has seen booming businesses in artisanal gold mining, livestock business and agriculture with sesame and sorghum cultivated for domestic and international consumers.

But reminders of its bloody past and uncertain future are prominent. A memorial for fallen Ethiopian soldiers can be seen at the entrance of Badme, but there is no paved road leading to it and no branches of Ethiopian financial institutions to take advantage of the town’s increasing economic activity.

“Soldiers from across Ethiopia have died defending this land, the reconciliation between the two countries is a good thing, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of us ceding Badme to Eritrea,” said Gebreselassie.

While border points have not yet been opened, residents of Badme and the neighbouring Eritrean town of Shembeqo move relatively freely and the heavy military presence in the area has been reduced.

To the relief of its Ethiopian residents, Badme has at best become an afterthought.

Meron Estefanos, an Eritrean human rights activist, says Badme is a symbol of a wider conflict.

“The fundamental reason for the Ethiopia-Eritrea war is the competing economic interest and personal animosity between Eritrea’s ruling party, Eritrean People’s Liberation Front [EPLF], and the formerly dominant member party of EPRDF [Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front], Tigray People’s Liberation Front [TPLF] – and their leadership.”

On a personal level, he added: “The peace deal has allowed me to meet my mother after 15 years. I was also able to meet my brother after 19 years, after he was able to come across the border to Ethiopia and meet me there.” 

Memorial tombstones for Ethiopian soldiers who died fighting against Eritrean forces during the two-year border war from 1998-2000 [Michael Tewelde/ AlJazeera]

TPLF and EPLF fought together for 17 years and their combined efforts led to the overthrow of the Ethiopian military government of Mengistu Hailemariam in May 1991.

The Ethiopian government, led by TPLF-dominated EPRDF, was the first to recognise Eritrean independence in 1993, after a referendum saw most Eritreans voting to secede from Ethiopia.

TPLF had said it fought for the creation of a federal Ethiopia, replacing the unitary state of the past and not outright independence of its home region, Tigray.

“The border is just a precedent for a complex economic organisational and personal infighting, a reason why despite a peace deal there are unresolved issues between the two countries,” said Estefanos.

Border crossings closed

Despite initial high hopes, all four border crossings opened between Ethiopia and Eritreahave been closed from the Eritrean side without an explanation.

Eritrea has remained silent on the border crossings issue.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy, in a recent interview, alluded to the need to “harmonise trade customs issues” and “the non-return of Eritrean exiles” as a reason for the closures.

After the 1998-2000 border war, Ethiopia expanded its economy, while Eritrea’s economy stagnated as the government said it needed to divert resources and human power to fight off a potential invasion from its much larger neighbour.

While Ethiopia has embarked on political liberalisation since Ahmed came to power in April 2018, Eritrea remains a closed off one-party state.

Eritrea’s lack of political freedoms and lacklustre economy have led tens of thousands of Eritreans to flee to Ethiopia in recent months, while a diaspora-based oppositionmovement seems to have unnerved its government.

The breathtaking speed of the Ethiopia-Eritrea thaw last year surprised many who had written it off as a lost cause. 

Badme town is located at the edge of a triangular strip of Ethiopian land and surrounded by Eritrea [Michael Tewelde/ Al Jazeera]

Abebe Aynete, a senior researcher at the Ethiopia Foreign Relations Strategic Studies (EFRSS) think-thank, cited the involvement of Gulf countries.

“Saudi Arabia and the UAE have leased the Eritrean port of Assab since 2015, partly to use it in their war across the Red Sea in Yemen. Ethiopia saw these two countries as a conduct to improve its ties to Eritrea. 

“The Saudis are trying to diversify their economy to include a substantial agricultural sector. The Emiratis are interested in investing in ports across the Horn of Africa region.

“Ethiopia has plenty of arable land and an Emirati investment in ports in Eritrea and other parts of Horn of Africa can have a ready customer in landlocked Ethiopia,” saidAynete.

He also credits the Ethiopian prime minister for breaking through EPRDF’s bureaucratic foreign policy approach.

Back in Badme, Gebreselassie remains cautiously hopeful.

“Our culture is the same, our faces are the same, our language is the same. The Ethiopian and Eritrean governments should bring their agreements down to the people and create on-the-ground reconciliation.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

The post Between peace and uncertainty after Ethiopia-Eritrea deal appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By AFP

MEKELE,

In his cramped studio, Ethiopian reggae singer Solomon Yikunoamlak plucks his guitar and reads over his latest ballad, a strident call for unity in his native Tigray during a time of national upheaval.

It is unusual material for an artist who rose to fame singing love songs, but Solomon expects it will resonate with Tigrayan listeners who have witnessed their authority fade under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s leadership.

Since coming to power last year, the 42-year-old leader has loosened controls in long-authoritarian Ethiopia and shaken up decades-old power arrangements, angering some Tigrayans who feel sidelined as other ethnicities jostle for influence.

“Nowadays everybody becomes activists, and everybody becomes politicians,” Solomon told AFP, reflecting on the fevered political climate that has taken hold since Abiy assumed office.

“This is because of the current problems.”

‘SHARP OPPOSITION’

In Mekele, the regional capital, Tigrayans complain they have been scapegoated by the prime minister, who is an ethnic Oromo, for Ethiopia’s woes in recent years.

Anti-Abiy sentiment in Tigray was spotlighted following the killings last month of five high-ranking government and military officials — violence Abiy says was part of a coup attempt in Amhara state, neighbouring Tigray

Two of the victims, including the army chief, were from Tigray, and their funerals in Mekele sparked an outpouring of grief, with some mourners denouncing Abiy as a traitor.

“There is a huge frustration here in Tigray,” said Nebiyu Sehil Mikael, a writer and lecturer at Mekele University.

“There is a sharp opposition against the federal government.”

OUTSIZED AUTHORITY 

Yet anger with Abiy was a feature of daily life in Mekele before the June unrest.

Tigrayans grumble of a central government hostile to their interests.

Though they make up just six percent of Ethiopia’s population of 100 million people, Tigrayans were long seen as wielding outsized authority.

After toppling the brutal communist Derg regime in 1991, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front transformed from a rebel movement into the strongest political party of the ruling coalition that remains in charge today.

PROTESTS

But the TPLF was undermined by several years of anti-government protests that swept Abiy to power.

It remains part of the ruling coalition, though it has been weakened further under Abiy.

Tigrayans have been stripped of top positions and in some cases jailed on charges of corruption and human rights violations.

Some of those targeted under Abiy have become Tigrayan heroes.

Clothing vendor Zayid Meles said one of her top sellers these days was a T-shirt declaring “I am Getachew Assefa” — a reference to the powerful Tigrayan former spy chief who Abiy fired last year.

Despite being the target of an arrest warrant, Getachew remains at large and is believed to be hiding somewhere in the region.

Zayid said the T-shirt — which includes a rendering of Getachew’s face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses — is a way of signalling to Abiy that Getachew will never face trial.

“All Tigrayans buy it,” she said. “Getachew is a hero.”

Tigrayan fears for their future override other concerns about the TPLF’s shortcomings in promoting democracy and fighting poverty, said Mahari Yohans, a prominent Tigrayan political commentator.

“The politics of Tigray is the politics of security,” he said. “We are under threat.”

‘TIGRAY SECESSION’

The situation has become so polarised that Tigrayans are increasingly entertaining the idea of secession, said Wondimu Asamnew, a Mekele native and longtime Ethiopian diplomat.

“It’s very sad,” he said. “They have started even to question whether or not they belong to the country.”

Even if secession is a far-fetched prospect, it’s clear the tensions are colouring everything from Tigrayans’ Facebook posts to how they watch football.

Fans of Mekele’s Ethiopian Premier League club, Mekele 70 Enderta F.C., were dismayed earlier this year when supporters of a rival club tore down a poster of Tigrayan former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during a match in Addis Ababa.

The teams’ supporters skirmished again at a follow-up match in Mekele, prompting the Ethiopian Football Federation to temporarily suspend the league.

The TPFL has seized the opportunity to turn support for Mekele 70 Enderta F.C. into a regional cause.

Party officials were on hand Sunday to watch the club win its last match of the season at Mekele Stadium, securing the league championship.

As jubilant fans jammed city squares and set off fireworks late into the night, Twitter posts praised the team for its triumph and for overcoming what one user called a “corrupt” federation that “tried all it could to deny them”.

For some fans in Mekele, though, the politicisation of football was too much.

“The so-called politicians need to focus on their politics,” said Asmelash Nigus. “It would be better if they don’t involve themselves in football.”

The post Calls for unity in Ethiopia’s Tigray as anti-Abiy sentiment swells appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Until few years ago, the Pan Ethiopian (or pro-unity political block) had the support of the north (Amhara), much of the South, & almost every major urban area at the center (including Addis) & Oromia. Now, this group seems politically dead or irrelevant!

Background: 
Before 2018, The unity camp had its leaders in exile, in prison, or some had raised arms against the regime. After the 2018 change within EPRDF however, the imprisoned became free, exiles & formerly armed groups returned…. well they came back amid huge fanfare.

The post Short Commentary on the Current Status of Ethiopia’s Unity Camp appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The post Ethiopia faces more conflict with ethnic group’s push for region appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

ADDIS ABABA, July 10 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong firm Hop Lun Company (HLH) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ethiopian officials to manage Bahir Dar Industrial Park (BIP) located in the northern part of Ethiopia.

The MoU agreement was signed between representatives of Hop Lun Company and the Ethiopian Investment Commission in Bahir Dar city, located 552 km north of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

BIP, which is in the final stage of commissioning, was constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), and when at full capacity, is expected to create employment opportunities for about 10,000 Ethiopians.

Bahir Dar Industrial Park is one of about a dozen textile and garment sector dedicated industrial parks Ethiopia is constructing to meet its manufacturing ambitions.

With Ethiopia attracting large-scale investment in the export-oriented manufacturing sector, especially from Chinese firms, the country sees improving the efficiency and speed of the logistics sector as key to meeting national manufacturing revenue goals.

Ethiopia plans to have 30 industrial parks by 2025, as part of its efforts to make the country a light manufacturing hub and lower-middle-income economy in the same period.

The post Hong Kong firm signs MoU to manage Ethiopian industrial park appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Ethiopian Press Agency (E.P.A)

The post Had Herman Cohen heard what Ethiopians have been feeling about him… ? appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

A Panel discussion on Nation building in the Hague Netherlands

The post A Panel discussion on Nation building in the Hague Netherlands appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Dawit Endeshaw, Katharine Houreld

GARA-BOKKA, Ethiopia/NAIROBI (Reuters) – A week after Boeing Co offered $100 million to help families and communities affected by the deadly crashes of its 737 MAX planes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, affected farmers in Ethiopia, victims’ relatives and the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments say they have not heard anything about the funds.

The planemaker said it would give the money to local governments and non-profit organizations, adding the funds were not connected with a slew of lawsuits from victims’ families.

It is unclear who will qualify for the aid or what the timeline is for the offer, which was unusual in that it comes from a planemaker rather than an airline.

Farmers where an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed on March 10 say their lands have been fenced off since, with the site still littered with small shards of debris, and they cannot afford to rent plots elsewhere.

They told Reuters this week they were not aware of any offer from Boeing.

Neither the Ethiopian nor the Kenyan governments, whose countries suffered the most deaths in the crash of Flight ET302, have had any discussions with Boeing, officials said.

Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Asrat Begashaw said the airline had no details on Boeing’s offer.

“There is no information,” he said.

Undated photograph shows Pawel Konarski, his wife Stella and son Adam who died in the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 plane crash, at an undisclosed location in this photograph released July 11, 2019. Pawel Konarski/Handout via REUTERS

In its statement last week, Boeing said, “These funds will support education, hardship and living expenses for impacted families, community programs, and economic development in impacted communities”.

FAMILIES’ ANGER

Some victims’ families were angered by the July 3 announcement, describing it as a publicity stunt.

The crash in Ethiopia and of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October killed a total of 346 people. Preliminary investigations show the pilots, both flying Boeing’s new 737 MAX 8 model, struggled to override an automated system that erroneously pointed the plane’s nose down. The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide after the second crash and regulators must approve a fix and new pilot training before the jets can fly again.

In Gara-bokka, the dusty plain that was the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, farmers said Ethiopian and airline officials had visited them in April but nothing had happened since.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We were once told that a statue in memory of the victims and a health post for the local community will be built, and they also promised that the road to the crash site will also be built so that it will be easily accessible for visitors,” said Malka Galato, 47, standing by the barbed wire fence protecting the site.

Malka and two other farmers told Reuters that some residents need to find new land to farm, since their fields are now fenced off. No one from Boeing had spoken to them, they said.

Several families told Reuters they want some of the money to fund a memorial at the site. Others suggested Boeing could fund counseling. Some questioned whether funds given to government or charities might be vulnerable to corruption.

Families said Boeing has not sought their opinions.

Boeing did not respond specifically when asked about a lack of information so far on the disbursement of funds, about contacts between the planemaker and officials, local residents and victims’ relatives, and about the request from some families for funds for a memorial or for professional counseling, as well as concern about potential corruption.

Boeing spokesman Peter Pedraza said on Monday, “We’ve been assessing a variety of ways to assist the families and communities impacted and determined that this is a constructive step that we can take now … We’re working through the process. Boeing plans to partner with local governments and non-profit organizations to address family needs.”

ENCLOSED ‘IN MY GRIEF’

Paul Njoroge’s wife Carolyne, 6-year-old son Ryan, 4-year-old daughter Kelli and baby Rubi were aboard the plane, along with his mother-in-law Anne. During Canada Day this month, he could not face seeing happy families.

“I stayed enclosed in my little house, in my grief,” he wrote in a letter to Boeing that he shared with Reuters. “How much would it cost Boeing to personally apologize to the families of the victims? To offer professional counseling for all families who are grieving?” he asked.

Families also said they struggled to imagine how Boeing defined “communities affected by the crash” since people from 35 countries were aboard the Ethiopian Airlines flight.

Polish citizen Pawel Konarski is mourning his Kenyan wife Stella and 1-year-old son Adam.

“The first thing they (Boeing) should do is reach the families to give their condolences,” he said. “The second thing, they should offer professional counseling.”

Many families said Boeing should talk to them.

“Why does Boeing take so long to acknowledge us?” asked Canadian Clariss Moore, whose daughter Danielle was killed. “Give our loved ones (the) respect that they deserve.”

A senior Boeing executive attended a vigil for the Ethiopian community in Seattle shortly after the crash, according to a television report, but the company has not yet said whether it has had any direct contact with families affected by the two crashes.

The post Families and Ethiopian farmers feel in the dark over Boeing’s aid offer appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A failed regional coup in Ethiopia has exposed rare divisions in the alliance that has dominated the country for three decades, with two of the four ethnic parties that form the ruling coalition trading insults in a public feud.

REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

While there have been disagreements among the parties in the past, analysts described the acrimonious exchange this week between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP) as among the most serious yet.

The two groups have shared power with two other ethnic parties since 1991 in a coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), that tolerated little dissent until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power last year and launched political reforms.

The new tension between them arose after a rogue militia tried to seize power last month in the northern Amhara region, ruled by the ADP. The authorities blamed the June 22 attempted regional coup on Asamnew Tsige, a rogue ADP member, killed in fighting on the outskirts of the regional capital Bahir Dar.

In recent days, the TPLF has accused the ADP of having stood by while Asamnew trained and armed a militia in the lead-up to the uprising, and of having failed to denounce him since.

“The TPLF would have difficulty working with its so-called sister party, which hasn’t even dared to stare the killer in the eye,” Getachew Reda, executive member of TPLF and former national communication minister, told Reuters on Thursday.

The ADP responded by accusing the TPLF of being “responsible for the current political crisis in the country. The TPLF has no moral or practical ground to consider itself as the only guardian of Ethiopia,” it said in a statement late on Thursday. It gave no further details.

FLYING IN THE FACE OF REALITY

The TPLF was angered earlier this week when the ADP chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, said an unidentified third group was behind the June uprising. The TPLF viewed the remarks as an attempt by the ADP to avert blame.

“How would I feel comfortable sitting next to Demeke while his remarks are flying in the face of reality?” TPLF’s Getachew told Reuters by telephone.

The violence on June 22 was the strongest challenge yet to the rule of Abiy, who in just over a year in power has rolled out a series of reforms allowing greater freedoms in what had long been one of Africa’s most repressive states.

The reforms have made it possible for long-held grievances against the government’s decades of harsh rule to resurface, and have emboldened local power-brokers seeking to build support by securing more power and territory for their ethnic groups.

Resulting waves of unrest have forced the government to postpone a long-delayed national census and thrown doubt over whether an election next year will be held on time.

Each of the ruling coalition’s four ethnically-based parties faces increasing competition from newer, more strident parties in their own home provinces, and are having to become more assertive themselves to avoid being outflanked, analysts say.

 

The post Regional power grab attempt causes rare discord in Ethiopia coalition appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Damo Gotamo

The flawed constitution of Ethiopia stipulates that a national election is to be held once in every fifth year. Under the TPLF dictatorial regime, the country held four sham elections. In all those farce elections, the EPRDF won by huge margins, the last one by a hundred percent. The cutthroats from Dedebit didn’t realize that by winning elections all the time and mocking the people of Ethiopia every five years, they were digging their own grave. In the end, the lies and crimes of the TPLF members caught up with them. The mass protest that engulfed the country chased them to their home, which they didn’t have to leave in the first place.

Leaders of the new government have promised to conduct a real, fair, and free election next year. To this end, a new Election Board chairwoman has been appointed, and competent people have been filling vacant positions to strengthen the capacity of the institution. Furthermore, in March 2019, one hundred seven political parties in the country signed a code of conduct that will govern their operations.

The Election Day is fast approaching, and the members of different political parties are expressing their opinion, whether the election should be carried out as scheduled. Some are suggesting that the coming election should take place as slated. Others are saying it should be postponed.

Under the current situation n the country, it is impossible to hold free and fair election next year. The leaders in power are in a damage control mode and holding an election next year is a recipe for disaster. Therefore, the government should postpone the next year’s general election until peace and stability prevail in the country. Since he came to power, Prime Minister Abiy has encountered many lingering issues that will make holding free and fair election in 2020 very difficult.

After Abiy became PM, he has been dealing with a multitude of problems he has inherited from the TPLF regime and new obstacles that emerged after he assumed power. Disgruntled TPLF criminals and their vassals have been trying hard to undermine the PM and thwart the ongoing reform process. From their hideouts in Tigraye, the TPLF ruffians have tried everything to destabilize the country.

A few months after he assumed power, an assassination attempt was made on Abiy’s life. The former criminal in chief of the TPLF and a fugitive from justice Getachew Assefa, through his hired mercenaries, tried to kill the PM. The failed assassination attempt killed and wounded innocent people, and shocked the people of the country. The mastermind of the heinous crime is still at large, protected by his crime partners, who themselves are escapees from justice.

Using their networks and the money they have plundered from the country, the TPLF hoodlums have trained and marched their foot soldiers in all corners of the country to instigate ethnic conflicts. They have also reactivated their cells and partners in crime to fight the central government.

One of those partners, the former president of the Somali region, Abdi Mohammed Omar aka Abdi Iley, using his death squad, tried to secede the country. His effort was met with deadly force, and he was thrown into jail. The failed effort of the former hitman unnerved the new leaders.

On October 11, 2018, four months after the Meskel Square’s failed assassination attempt, several soldiers, wielding their guns, marched into PM’s office under the pretext of requesting pay raise. The PM summoned his man management skills to diffuse the situation and ended the confrontation peacefully. However, a few days later, he revealed to the public that there was nothing innocent about the uninvited soldiers’ intrusion into his office. He said the soldiers went to his office to kill him. The country would have been in flames if the mission of the rogue soldiers had succeeded.

Ethnic entrepreneurs haven’t given a moment of respite to the new leaders either. They have tried to take advantage of the leadership change to advance their political interests. In a short period, they displaced millions of people from their homes and killed thousands. From the Oromia region alone, one million people were dislocated. The Guji Oromos extremists forced close to a million Gedeons to leave their homes.

The Gedeon plight unleashed a public-relations crisis against the Ethiopian government for its notoriously sluggish response. After the public fury, the government interfered, but the situation is still precarious requiring the full attention of the government.

According to a recently released report by the Internally Displaced Monitoring Center(IDMC), Ethiopia topped the list of internally displaced countries in the world. Nearly three million people have been internally displaced in Ethiopia due to the flawed ethnic federalism of the country. The majority of the people have been displaced from the four largest regions (Kelils) of the country, namely Oromia, Amhara, Somali, and Southern regions.

Another major source of challenge to Abiy’s administration came from groups and people who received amnesty from his government. Those who were in Eritrea, and in prisons in Ethiopia have presented significant challenges against the government that set them free from exile and jail.

No sooner had its members arrived in the country, the OLF, a gathering of blinkered tribal lords, unleashed its terrorist activists against innocent people and government officials in Wollega and Guji areas of the country. During its crime spree, the OLF robbed more than seventeen banks, ones again needing the government’s intervention. The rogue group hasn’t ceased its destabilizing tendencies, and it is still a threat to the peace and stability of the country. Its members just killed a high raking security official in Wollega.

Prisoners, who received amnesty from the government have posed one of the most daunting challenges to the Abiy leadership to date. A few weeks ago, a general who was freed from jail by the new leaders after years of incarceration, allegedly tried to topple the government that sets him free. The senseless act cost the lives of the Amhara region leaders and the top generals of the country. This ill-conceived senseless act has further weakened the fragile peace and security of the country the new leadership has been trying to restore.

In addition to the above challenges, the PM is at loggerheads with ethnic extremists in the Southern region of the country. Motivated by their parochial interests, the Sidama ethnic entrepreneurs have been challenging the new leader and testing his resolve since he came to power. They are morbidly obsessed with Kelil that no rational argument can change their thought process.

Unqualified to any position, ethnic entrepreneurs, who have assumed key government positions in Awassa, have been harassing people and disturbing the peace of the city for a year. Within a year, they have destroyed the economic activities of the second largest city in the country. No longer able to tolerate the lawlessness, many people left the city, closing their businesses and selling their properties.

Ones economically vibrant and the most sought after city in Ethiopia to live and do business, Awassa has become a ghost city. The price of the city’s real estate market, which was rivaled by Addis Ababa only a few years ago, is now the cheapest in the country.

The obsession of Sidama extremists with Kelil is out of control that no advise will stop them from trying to declare  Kelili illegally. Their confrontation with the government seems inevitable. They are driven by their own self-interest and don’t fully grasp the magnitude and consequences of their illegal action.

Other nine zones in the Southern region have shown their desire to have their own Kelil. But, they chose to do so legally, responsibly, and in a civilized manner.

Truth to be told, some of them problems in the country have been caused and exacerbated by the new leadership. Abiy administration’s inability to be open in his dealings with some groups and its failures to maintain law and order in the country has made matters worse. For example, the new leaders were unforthcoming in their dealings with the OLF and didn’t disclose to the public the content of their agreement. It is also unclear why it took too long to take action against the OLF troublemakers when they were killing people and robbing banks.

The government showed similar ineptitude in the Southern Kelli when the Sidama extremists got out of control for a year long. Nothing was done when they killed innocent people, shut down various institutions, and beat government officials in a broad daylight. The government chose to keep silent when the Sidama entrepreneurs have destroyed the economy of one of the largest cities in the country. The silence of the government baffled many people and allowed the Sidama extremists to break the law with impunity.

In the midst of myriad problems and challenges mentioned above, ethnic based political parties are putting unnecessary pressure on the government to hold the upcoming election next year. The members of TPLF, OLF, and NAMA are leading the way among the groups that are vociferously expressing their views in favoring of holding an election next year. They argue, if the election is not carried out as scheduled, it will be the end of the world.

The TPLF megalomaniacs who were chased away to their dugout by the popular movement are one of the vocal advocates for the election to take place on a schedule. The TPLFites, who conducted four sham elections and ruled the country with an iron fist for twenty-seven years, are crying daily that the government respects the constitution.

Career criminals, who killed, jailed, and tortured Ethiopians for more than two decades with impunity are demanding the new administration conduct election on the date slated no matter what the reality is on the ground.

Corrupt tribal lords, who plundered the country dry, left an empty coffer to the new leaders, caused unparalleled economic hardship, and plunged the country into political crisis are demanding the election to be held next year.

A group that violated its own manual (many aren’t comfortable to call it a constitution) and imposed it on the country is asking the government to respect the constitution. Apparently, members of the TPLF want to mount another comeback in the middle of an election violence. They must say something to feel relevant.

Plato’s classical quote comes to my mind when ever I hear what the TPLF ruffians have to utter. He said, ‘Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.’There are no greater fools than the TPLF criminals.

Another group that demands the election to take place next year is the OLF (there are more than five OLF parties). Most of the OLF leaders are in their late sixties and seventies.

Some have spent more than thirty years as leaders of their party, and because of old age, they barely walk without the help of others. Time isn’t on their side to hold on meaningful political position to show to the people they claim they have been struggling for. When ever they get the opportunity to appear on their favorite TV shows, the tribal lords try to tell people how important it is to hold the coming election on time.

The fact that they are one of the problems for the ongoing instability in the country doesn’t concern them at all. If the election is extended by a year or two, their dream of assuming power will evaporate. When they failed to unsettle the government through violent means, they have resorted to insisting that the election be conducted next year. They want to seize power as quickly as possible by any means necessary to further plunge the country into lawlessness.

There is another group that insists on the election to take place next year. The leaders of these parties are so desperate to be seen as relevant in the eyes of the people they claim to represent they are openly telling us that they have been jailed because they wanted to run for public office.

Nothing is wrong if people interested in running for public office. The problem is the members of these groups are scary bunches. They are famous for making very controversial and outrageous statements. Recently, one of them advised the Oromo businessmen to sell their products to people who don’t speak the Oromo language.

People in this group are so desperate to grab power right away that anyone who advocates the extension of the election is an anathema to them. Their concern partly has to do with the fact that if the reform process strengthens and people distance themselves from ethnic politics, their dream of assuming power will evaporate. Therefore, they argue that there will be an Armageddon if the election is extended by a few years.

Similar to the majority of the Oromo political organizations, the Amhara parties such as the National Movement of Amhara (NAMA) are advocating the election takes place in 2020.

The members of these parties, who are mostly returnees from Eritrea, are giving the most preposterous reason for their claim. They say the reason for the ongoing ethnic violence, and massive displacement in the country is the absence of a democratic government in the country. According to them, if the election is held next year, all the problems of the country will vanish into thin air. Like their Oromo counterparts, the members of NAMA are adamant about their stance regarding the date of the upcoming election.

Before the election takes place, a lot needs to be done in training and instructing the member of the EPRDF. Many members of this party are doing business as usual. They are still abusing and displacing people in all the corners of the country. If the election takes place next year, they will do the same things they used to do in the past, rigging elections.

We have seen in places like Arsi the members of the ruling party chasing away members of the opposition parties. Free and fair election means a threat to their long-held power. The reform hasn’t reached to the lower level of the government structure. In many places, the old TPLF structure is still intact. Therefore, a lot needs to be done ‘taming’ the EPRDF cadres before conducting the race.

The recent incidents in Amhara and Tigri regions provide a stark reminder that the country is way off from conducting a free and free election next year. Ginbot seven members were chased away from Bahir Dar by young people who were wielding Ak47. A few days ago, the members of Tigraye Democratic Party Coalition (TAND) were assaulted and jailed when they set foot in Tigraye to attend the funeral of the late generals. The TPLF in Tigraye is jailing and killing the Arena Tigraye members.

As we have seen many times, even in peaceful times, elections in Africa are very controversial and often lead to violence. What happened in Kenya in 2008 serves as a stark reminder to us that in countries where parties are divided along ethnic lines, election aftermaths often lead to deadly violence. When President Mawi Kibaki was declared the winner of the 2007 national election, deadly violence erupted in Kenya. Relatively a peaceful country compared to Ethiopia, Kenya engulfed in unprecedented ethnic violence that caused the death of thousands of people and destruction of properties. The current ethnic animosity and rhetoric in Ethiopia have to cool down before rushing to an election.

Peace and stability must prevail in the country, to conduct a free, faire, and peaceful election in the country. People are still being killed and displaced in all corners of the country. Those who lost power and privilege are working day and night to undermine the reform process.

Members of opposition political parties can’t move freely in all corners of the country to meet people and introduce their programs. A few who tried have been chased away by thugs wielding guns. Furthermore, rushing to hold an election without strengthening democratic institutions such as the election board and independent judiciary will put the election result into question. The new Election Board is still in the process of filling qualified people to enhance its institutional capacity to oversight the election effectively. At this time, it isn’t fully prepared to carry out its duties effectively.

Ethiopians at this time give paramount importance to peace and stability than an election that will deliver nothing to their lives. To them, peace and security are priorities over any other issues. Any party that is rushing to grab power at this challenging time doesn’t have the peoples’ interest first.

The TPLF criminals stayed in power for twenty-seven years, by manipulating and violating their own working manual they dubbed it as a constitution. They carried out four fraudulent elections.

To those who say that extending an election by a couple of years to ensure peace and security is breaking the law, I tell them to slow down and think about the people in the country.

We have waited almost for three decades to free ourselves from abuse and exploitation.

We mustn’t allow the second coming of power hungry ethnic lords to disintegrate our country into small sates by rushing us into an election. Let the naysayers cry wolf. The government should postpone the upcoming election at least by two years from the slated date to insure peace and stability in the country.

The post The Upcoming National Election in Ethiopian should be Postponed  appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

After General Seare Mokonnen, the Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian armed forces and his colleague Major General Gezae Abera were murdered in the home of the former by his own body guard in an attempted coup d’etat on 15 June 2019, four days later a funeral was arranged on 19 June 2019 at the city of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray.

Representing my party, the Tigrian Alliance for National Democracy (TAND) and to pay my last respect for the slain generals who were my former colleagues during the struggle to oust the military junta known as the Derg, I travelled to the martyrs’ monument in Mekelle where the funeral procession starts and a memorial service was taking place.

As I approached the site, a group of hooligans began shouting insults, like ‘’traitor” “banda” etc. directed at me. The chants  were being aired earlier on the Tigray Radio and tv, also directed at Dr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and Mr. Abraha Desta, Chairman of the Arena Tigray Party.

The chants were followed by throwing stones at me, and the police on the spot had to intervene to protect me. Subsequently, I was whisked away to a nearby police station where the situation seemed calm. After a while, I demanded to fly back to Addis Ababa from where I flew the same morning. The officer in charge of the station, Commander Abadi Zegeye, appeared to heed to my demands and soon I began heading towards the airport of Mekelle escorted by four policemen.

The officer escorting me, however, instructed our driver to continue to Quha, a town about ten kilometers away from the airport. When I challenged the officer why change the direction, he replied “it is an order from above”.  Soon, I ended up in Quha police station and was locked in a prison cell with my personal belongings taken away. There was no explanation to my incarceration.

After I spent the rest of day and the night in the prison cell, at about 10:30 in the morning, my captors set me free and accompanied me back to the airport from where I made my way back to Addis Ababa, but harassed, injured and without attending the funeral of my loved ones.

Meanwhile my close colleague, Mr. Amanuel Wolde Libanos, who drove to Quha looking for me was ambushed by four policemen, and at gun point he was led to the outskirts of Quha where the policemen forced a plastic bottle full of poison into his mouth. As he fought back, some of the liquid poison went through his mouth while the rest was splashed over his clothes and body. Luckily for him, passers-by ladies who shouted for help, rescued him from the deadly ordeal, and to this day he is undergoing medical treatment at Addis Ababa hospital.

Plainly, these criminal acts were perpetrated by agents of the regional government of Tigray – acts which are tantamount to state terrorism. Using the funeral ceremony as a pretext, subsidiaries of the regional government had assembled over 3000 hooligans from all the sub-districts of Tigray (150 from each) and had used the sad occasion as a political platform, reminiscent of the defunct Fascist Derg. Such hideous acts, especially during somber moment when everybody is poised to mourn, are alien from the culture of Ethiopians and humanity at large.

With best regard,

Aregawi Berhe (PhD)

Chairman –TAND

12 July 2019

Note:

I have been a resident in The Netherlands since 1993 as a political refugee with Ä status. I did my MA in Politics of Development at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and my PhD in Vrije University Amsterdam. Intermittently, I worked as a research assistant at Afrika Study Center, Leiden University for over seven years. I am also politically engaged in the process of establishing a democratic system in Ethiopia.

For futher details on our struggle to democratize Ethiopia, please visit our website, www.tand-tesfana.com

The post A brief account of criminal acts during the funeral of the two generals in Mekelle, Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The post Who draws the boundary of Ezekiel’s Sovereign Nations and Nationalities? appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

There is great wisdom in the old typing drill, “This is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.”

I would argue more specifically this is the time for all good Ethiopian lawyers, doctors, engineers, professors, academics, writers, journalists, teachers, service workers and all others to come to the aid of their country.

The facts we must all face today are these:

The leadership of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) hiding out in Mekele believes Ethiopia will soon be plunged into ethnic civil war and implode.

The TPLF “doomsday preppers ” are getting ready to exploit the assumed impending anarchy and disorder and steal their way back to power. Just like they did in May 1991.

Over the past year, the TPLF has been orchestrating chaos, lawlessness, anarchy and disorder throughout the land. They are doing everything they can to make that happen with the billions they stole.

The TPLF has one and only one objective.

If they cannot have Ethiopia as their playground, they will do their damnedest to turn her into Yugoslavia.

They are drooling at the mouth just thinking about it.

The late TPLF Uber Boss Meles Zenawi was fond of scare-talk about how Ethiopia will go the way of Yugoslavia without his guiding hand and the TPLF’s command and control.

Balkanization was Meles’ dream for Ethiopia.

The TPLF prophets of doom and gloom today predict it is just a matter of time before Ethiopia becomes the next Syria or Libya.

Every day, the TPLF pumps empty blusters about secession and bravado about its military might.

The TPLF old foggies are still living in the 1960s. They think today is 1991.

A few days ago, the TPLF issued an announcement demanding a return to “the good old days.”

The TPLF wackjobs think they can turn back the hands of time.

They want to return to power so bad, they are willing to sell their grandmothers to get it.

Absurd as it sounds, the TPLF leaders expect to march into Addis Ababa soon as TPLF Knights in Shining Armor ready to save the Ethiopian damsel in distress.

Of course, the TPLF will return to power one day.

That will be the day when hell freezes over the and devil goes ice skating. Alternatively, when pigs fly.

Until then, TPLFers should make a comfortable permanent home in the trash bin of history.

I prophesied the end of the TPLF in February 2013: “Meles and his worshippers have profoundly troubled the Ethiopian house and they shall inherit the wind!”

That is exactly, exactly what they did!

They inherited the wind.

Soon, they will be gone, gone with the wind!

To hell!!

Evil never sleeps. Neither does the TPLF.

We must maintain eternal vigilance and keep on keeping on.

In the meantime, we should man up, wise up, stand up, step up, shape up and get down to give aid to our country in its moment of greatest need.

Can Ethiopian intellectuals come to the aid of their country?

An old Jewish proverb teaches, “A nation’s treasure is its scholars (intellectuals).”

I would add a nation’s intellectuals should be the tip of the spear in political and social change.

George Ayittey, the distinguished Ghanaian economist, has a decidedly dim view of African intellectuals in general.

Ayittey argues African intellectuals have “prostituted themselves, selling off their principles and integrity to partake of the plunder, misrule and repression of the African people.

I should like to argue the lion’s share of obligation and burden of aiding Ethiopia in its hour of need rests on the shoulders of its community of scholars, academics and learned men and women.

Ethiopia has no shortage of degreed individuals, experts and intellectuals.

The number of Ethiopians sporting doctoral acronyms after their names is mind bending: Ph.Ds, M.Ds, J.Ds, D.As, D.B.As, D.Ds, EdDs, D.M.As, D.P.As, D.P.Hs, D.Scs, D.S.Ws, D.V.Ms, O.Ds…

But in aiding Ethiopia, the vast majority of the “doctors” have been as useful as a wooden frying pan.

Unfortunately, we, the “doctors”, have deluded ourselves into thinking talking in jargon and writing in fancy academic publications makes us special.

We think the academic acronyms after our names somehow transform our words into gospel truth.

The fact is we are not special.

We are only lucky to have the opportunity to get an education which is denied to 99.99 percent of our people.

Our degrees don’t mean diddly squat when 85 percent of our people are drinking polluted water from the river. Or die from preventable diseases.

How many of us “doctors” have scoured the countryside to see the abject poverty of the people and the degrading conditions under which they live on a daily basis?

The majority of Ethiopians live on less than $1 a day.

How many of us are willing to donate $1 a day to help them out?

The word “doctor” originates in the Latin verb docēre, which means “to teach”.

I don’t see many Ethiopian “doctors” teaching the (young, almost 80% of Ethiopia’s population) people.

For years, I have been calling on Ethiopian intellectuals to teach and preach to the people.

For years, I have been calling on Ethiopian intellectuals to come to the aid of their country.

I regret to say, the vast majority turned a deaf ear to my calls.

Back in June 2010, I wrote a commentary entitled, “Where Have the Ethiopian Intellectuals Gone?”

(I still have no idea where they have gone!)

I argued Ethiopian intellectuals were hopelessly wallowing in crises syndrome.

Ethiopian intellectuals are trapped in a “moral crisis”.

The vast majority of us are confused about what is right and wrong or are willfully ignorant of the difference. We have turned a blind eye and deaf ears to not only to decades of injustice but also have become depravedly indifferent to the common good of the future. Moral outrage has died a quiet death in our midst.

Ethiopian intellectuals suffer from a “crisis of critical thinking”.

We often lack depth in our analysis and prone to making quick conclusions based on hunches, speculations and gossip. We resort to polemics and labeling and consign anyone who disagrees with our point of view to eternal damnation. We rarely examine and re-examine our assumptions and beliefs but cling to them as eternal truths and propagate them as such.

Ethiopian intellectuals suffer a “crisis of self-confidence and intellectual courage”.

The vast majority of us are afraid to take a stand or to make our views known because we fear the ridicule and ostracism of our associates and peers. We are afflicted by “intellectual cowardicitus” which manifests itself in herd mentality and groupthink. We are afraid to take ownership and responsibility for our ideas for fear of being proven wrong and mask our intellectual cowardice with meaningless dogmas and abstractions. Lacking self-confidence, we have moored ourselves on islands of self-censorship and self-marginalization.

Ethiopian intellectuals suffer from a “crisis of foresight”.

Ethiopian intellectuals are experts on dwelling on the past though few of us have any substantive historical understanding. We passionately criticize the past and present but  do very little forward-thinking. As Ethiopia’s “eyes”, we are ironically afflicted by myopia (nearsightedness). We perceive a country that could potentially be dismembered by “ethnic federalism” but lack the vision to make it whole. We blather about accession to political power but we lack the foresight and contingency planning necessary to ensure democratic governance.

Ethiopian intellectuals suffer from a “crisis of communication”.

The vast majority of Ethiopian intellectuals talk past each other and lack intellectual honesty and candor in our communications. We pretend to agree and give lip service to each other only to turn around and engage in vile backbiting. Often we do not say what we mean or mean what we say. We keep each other guessing. We make little effort to genuinely seek common ground with those who do not agree with us. We have a nasty habit of marginalizing those who disagree with us and tell it like it is. We hate to admit error and apologize. Instead we compound mistakes by committing more errors. We tend to be overly critical of each other over non-essentials. As a result, we have failed to nurture coherent and dynamic intellectual discourse about Ethiopia’s present and future.

Ethiopian intellectuals suffer a “crisis of intellectual leadership”.

There are few identifiable Ethiopian intellectual leaders today. In many societies, a diverse and competing intellectual community functions as the tip of the spear of social change. We have witnessed the powerful role played by intellectual leaders in emancipating Eastern Europe from the clutches of communist tyranny and in leading a peaceful process of change. No society can ever aspire to advance without a core intellectual guiding force. The founders of the American Republic were not merely political leaders but also intellectuals of the highest caliber for any age. Ethiopian intellectuals unfortunately wallow in a quagmire of recrimination, finger pointing and mudslinging.

I have challenged Ethiopia’s intellectuals to rise up and come to the aid of the country on numerous occasions.

In my May 2011 Huffington Post piece, I noted the fact that I had “publicly called for the establishment of an informal policy “think tank” to research and critically evaluate current and emergent issues in Ethiopia. Would it not be wonderful if there could be union of concerned Ethiopian scholars, scientists, intellectuals and professionals who could come together as the tip of the spear in seeking to institutionalize democracy, human rights and rule of law in Ethiopia?”

I repeated the same call in April 2018, to no avail.

In my July 2012 commentary, I argued, “Ethiopian intellectuals need to organize themselves to bridge the information and knowledge gap and come up with fresh and creative ideas to help transition Ethiopia from dictatorship to democracy. I plead with members of the Ethiopian academic and scholarly community to also become public intellectuals.”

All of my calls to Ethiopian intellectuals to become the vanguard of change in Ethiopia have fallen on deaf ears! 

Hear! Hear! Ethiopian intellectuals. Will the moment define you or will you define the moment?

It is a new world in Ethiopia. The younger generation has taken over.

In January 2013, I prophesied Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation (young people) “is the  only generation that can deliver Ethiopia from the fangs of a benighted dictatorship and transform a decaying and decomposing garrison state built on a foundation of lies into one that is deeply rooted in the consent and sovereignty of the people.”

That prophesy has come to pass!

In a side swipe, I remarked: “Ethiopia’s intellectual Hippos [older generation] by and large have chosen to stand on the sidelines with arms folded, ears plugged, mouths  sealed shut and eyes blindfolded.”

The time has come to fish or cut bait for Ethiopia’s intellectuals.

In other words, the time has come to stop talking, complaining, griping, moaning, groaning, gossiping and rumor-mongering about Ethiopia’s problems and start doing something about them.

The time for fence-sitting is over. No more sticking fingers in the air and figuring out which way the wind is blowing.

The time for endless bickering, wind bagging and intellectual pontification is over.

The time to be Chicken Littles is over.

The time has come to start talking about what is right about Ethiopia and doing right by the people of Ethiopia.

It is foolish to sit around twiddling one’s thumb waiting to see a disintegrating Ethiopia according to the Gospel of the TPLF.

No need to fret about Ethiopia going to hell in a hand basket.

There is a special place in hell for the TPLF.

The TPLF will disintegrate and vanish into oblivion but Ethiopia shall remain one until kingdom come!

The time has come to stop finger pointing at our outstanding 43-year old prime minister and start looking at the three fingers pointing at us and ask, “What did I do for my country when I was 43 years old?”

I will be absolutely honest in answering that question. So should every Ethiopian who claims to be an intellectual with integrity.

What did I (or you?) do for Ethiopia when I was 43 years old?

Not a doggone thing!

Doggone it!

I could have done so much. But I did not because I was selfish.

It took the Meles Massacres to jolt me out of my selfishness.

It is true there comes a time in every person’s life when s/he defines the moment or is defined by it.

The Meles Massacres defined me.

Meles and his TPLF goons fought with their AK47s.

I fought them back with my pen and keyboard.

I believe I proved, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

I followed Thomas Jefferson’s counsel (the man who wrote the American Declaration of Independence) to Thomas Paine in 1796: “Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword.”

I fought the TPLF with my pen and my ideas and words.

My words proved to be more powerful that the TPLF’s AK47s.

I never said I would change Ethiopia. I said I would change the hearts and minds of the young people who will change Ethiopia in my very first full commentary in 2006 when I joined the Ethiopian human rights movement.

I believe I succeeded in that effort beyond my wildest expectations.

Ideas change hearts and minds. Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

Democratic ideals defeated Nazism in Germany, fascism in Italy, racial apartheid in  South Africa and ethnic apartheid in Ethiopia.

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas do change the world.”

It is high time to put words and ideas to work in Ethiopia!

Let’s have a battle of ideas and let the best idea win!

The cacophonous segment of the Ethiopian intellectual community likes to bark at PM Abiy Ahmed about what he is doing wrong.

By and large, the accusations are unsubstantiated emotional outpourings.

To my knowledge, there is not a single accusation of wrongdoing against PM Abiy supported by meticulously documented evidence.

I challenge anyone to produce such evidence in public.

The accusation hurled at PM Abiy in the main are boilerplate rumors, innuendoes and gossip liberally laced with ethnic animus.

The fact of the matter is PM Abiy is simply a prodigious mind.

There is not a single intellectual in Ethiopia or in the diaspora today who has the breadth of knowledge or mastery and command of domestic and foreign policy issues.

Abiy Ahmed is a strategic thinker of the first order. He is simply brilliant. No ifs or buts about it!

But don’t take my word for that.

Hear for yourself what the fearless and long-persecuted champion and doyen of Ethiopian human rights, the 89 year-old Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam recently said!

Over a period of seven decades, we all know Prof. Mesfin  is not given to hyperbole or exaggeration nor does he hand out praise lightly.

A few weeks ago, Prof. Mesfin urging Ethiopians to “give 100 percent support” to PM Abiy said:

… Abiy is special. Abiy, as far as I know, there is no ferenji (foreigner) or habesha (Ethiopian), I have never seen anyone who has a mind like Abiy. Regardless of what field, regardless of what educational discipline, he can speak authoritatively without a piece of paper (note). I have no idea how he disciplined his mind. He is an amazing person…

… I just don’t know how his mind is crafted. I just don’t know [what to say] about that guy. His mind is phenomenal. He has an amazing mind.

I know this deflates and steamrolls the fragile egos of so many Ethiopian intellectuals.

The truth is there is not a single Ethiopian intellectual today who can hold a candle to Abiy Ahmed.

All I can say is, “Deal with it! Challenge and defeat Abiy Ahmed in the arena of ideas, in the marketplace of ideas, if you can.”

Of course, all of that is beside the point.

The point is Abiy Ahmed has made us an offer we can’t refuse!

He has invited Ethiopia’s intellectuals in Ethiopia and in the diaspora to challenge him with ideas to change Ethiopia and makes the lives of the people better.

So, let’s show him how it’s done.

Let’s put in the public arena ideas and policies that are vastly superior to PM Abiy’s.

Let us show him we have a better idea than his Medemer.

Let us propose original and creative ideas and demand a role in their implementation.

Who said Abiy Ahmed has all the answers to Ethiopia’s problems?

Who said Abiy Ahmed has a monopoly on all the good ideas for Ethiopia?

What I know for a fact is that Abiy Ahmed is open to all creative, innovative and bold ideas.

He is certainly not afraid of ideas.

His clarion call has always been let’s have matchups in the marketplace of ideas and let the people have a choice.

His clarion call has been let’s have a free and fair election and let the best party win fair and square. If he loses the election, he will leave office within 24 hours.

Abiy Ahmed means what he says and says what he means. There is no BS with him.

He is a straight talker. He will say what can and cannot be done. He does not sugarcoat the bitter truth. He does not mince and dice the truth to make it more palatable.

The real challenge for Ethiopian intellectuals is to DO something right to make Ethiopia right.

If there are government wrongs, it is time to make them right. We have the knowledge, as we claim, to right wrongs.

If PM Abiy is doing things wrong, let’s show him how to do it right.

Admittedly, he did not go to fancy universities like we did. So, he does not know everything like we do.

He spent his youth in uniform doing what he can under a repressive regime.

He successfully undertook grassroots organizing with his team to rid Ethiopia from the TPLF cancer on the Ethiopian body politic.

Every day, Abiy Ahmed preaches, “Let’s build a new Ethiopia. If Ethiopia is heading down the wrong track, let’s put our shoulders to the wheel and noses to the grindstone and put her on the right track.”

If Ethiopia is right on the precipice of implosion as the TPLF doomsayers say, it’s our job to pull her back to safety.

How so?

Simple.

We pool our vast intellectual resources and come to the aid of Ethiopia.

Knowledge is power. Actionable knowledge is most powerful.

We have the engineering knowledge to tear down walls and  build bridges to bring our people together across ethnic religious lines.

We have the legal knowledge to help build an orderly society, a society built on a foundation of equality, justice and the rule of law.

We have knowledge in education. We can lift the cloud of darkness of ignorance enveloping our people.

We have business knowledge. Let us promote innovation and entrepreneurship among Ethiopia’s youth.

We have medical knowledge. Let’s help heal our nation.

We have the expertise, knowledge and skills to help our people who are suffering.

But knowledge, intelligence, education and learning are of little value if we lack vision, imagination, creativity and inspiration.

My CHALLENGE to all Ethiopian intellectuals: Stop talking. Stop moaning and groaning. Bring forth actionable ideas to help build the New Ethiopia.

I hereby formally accept PM Abiy’s long-standing challenge to Ethiopian intellectuals to come up with innovative, creative and practical ideas to help the people of Ethiopia.

Below, I have listed more than two dozen policy areas which Ethiopian intellectuals can help address and improve current conditions in Ethiopia or help ensure positive outcomes in the future.

I intend to issue my personal “white papers” on many of the issues listed below.

Indeed, on a number of the issues I have expressed my views in commentary form.

Frankly, I wonder how many other Ethiopian intellectuals will also rise up to the occasion with me .

If the past 14 years are an indication, the answer is crystal clear.

None!

When I stood up to the TPLF and exposed its long train of abuses in Ethiopia over the past 13 years, I stood alone every week and fought tooth and nail with my pen and keyboard.

Yes, there were a few fair-weather warriors who showed up from time to time, especially when the TPLF seemed vulnerable, to join in the battle cry.

I have heard the battle cry of “ye dil atbiya arbegnoch” from time to time.

Suffice it to say I will eat crow (vegan style, of course), if any other Ethiopian intellectual responds to the CHALLENGE.

I hope all will critically examine my forthcoming proposals and ideas and improve upon them or come up with their own original ideas.

I am not afraid to tackle issues beyond my areas of expertise.

I practice the art of asking questions and applying critical thinking to problems.

Albert Einstein observed, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

The TPLF made Ethiopia a dystopia.

I imagine a utopia of Ethiopia.

As I have said many times before, I proudly call myself a utopian Ethiopian.

I like to imagine the New Ethiopia. That makes me an “imagineer”.

Imagination is not fantasy.

Ethiopia desperately needs intellectuals with imagination.

Imagination is a process of asking probing questions about things that have yet to happen.

The lawyer’s professional life revolves around a simple principle: Ask endless questions to get at the truth.

I will be asking endless questions on the topics listed below.

The jury of the whole people will render a verdict on the answers and ideas I present.

CHALLENGE TOPICS:

How do we reduce, prevent and eliminate ethnic and communal violence and conflict?

How do we ensure a free, fair and peaceful election in 2020?

How do we form non-ethnic strong issue-based political parties?

How do we amend, revise or create a completely new constitution?

How do we deal with terrorism sponsored by secret groups?

How do we create economic opportunities for our youth?

How do we promote foreign direct investment in Ethiopia?

How do we promote tourism and make part of a sustainable economic development effort?

How do we increase and maximize diaspora remittances?

How do we rapidly increase the country’s foreign exchange reserve?

How do we institutionalize the rule of law?

How do we create good governance?

How do we improve educational quality at the elementary, secondary and college levels?

How do we effectively control corruption?

How do we improve the performance and professionalism of the civil service?

How do we improve professionalism in journalism?

How do we improve the professionalization of the military, security and police forces?

How do we fight fake news and disinformation on social media?

How do we improve the criminal and civil laws of the country?

How do we improve social relations through improved communication?

How do we deal with problems of ethnic and religious bias and bigotry?

How do we promote tolerance, civility in the public square?

How do we establish a community-based truth and reconciliation process?

How do we dismantle ethnic federalism or retain it?

How do we conduct an accurate census?

How do we manage population growth?

How do we promote preventive health care and sanitation?

How do we provide clean water to the 85 percent of the Ethiopian population that does not have it?

How do we empower women economically?

How do we manage the recurrent problems of famine and food crises?

How do we protect the environment and conserve resources?

How do we….?

Let’s stop talking and come up with sound ideas to do something. Anything!

Now is the Time for All Good Ethiopian Men and Women to Come to the Aid of Their Country!

The post Now is the Time for All Good Ethiopian Men and Women to Come to the Aid of Their Country! appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Israeli Policemen say leadership should have supported officer who fatally shot Solomon Teka, an unarmed teen

Josh Breiner

The post Police Officers Criticize Senior Brass Over Handling of Ethiopian-Israeli Protest appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Aligaz Yimer

I am writing this note of indignation after having read the following short letter on satenaw.com, just minutes back. You can also read it and get wild with anger because of the devilish insurgence into ADP of ODP.

https://www.satenaw.com/amharic/archives/69269

ADP, Amhara ‘Democratic’ Party, is known for its servitude to whoever comes to Arat Kilo Palace. This group of idiotic hybrids whose background is either Tigrian or Oromic, or perhaps both, has been known for its Judaic nature. We thought it was improving its behavior in the past two or so years especially after the so called change came into the scene. But to our surprise and dismay as well, the satanic nature of this Trojan horse couldn’t show any amelioration from what it has been doing since its formation by Meles Zenawi some 30 or 40 years back. Truth be told, this group of moles is nothing but agent of Amhara killers. To just remind you of the general truth, ADP will die unchanged.

ADP has clearly and repeatedly proved to be an instrument for the humiliation and destruction of the Amhara people. ADP was the tool of TPLF to implement its strategic plan of demolishing Amharas from wherever they live. In light of this, ADP was silent, if not active participant, when TPLF eliminated millions of Amharas through various methods, mainly including sterilization in the name of fake vaccinations, and infecting them with deadly contagious diseases like HIV and AIDS.

ADP was quiet presumably for a number of reasons. 1. Its decisive members were nominal or fake Amharas, like Bereket and Kassa or Tefera Walowa, whose distraction was mainly Tigrian or as recent phenomena vividly witness Oromic. History is too cruel and it is disclosing the stark reality that a people of not less than 30 million is edging to its peril due to non-Amhara leaders infiltrated into so called ADP. 2. Even if some real Amhara leaders are there, their role is insignificant due to their hodamnet and lack of courage or the necessary knowledge and wisdom to free the Amharas from the grip of ODP. 3. The psychology of ADP leaders, if at all the ones who are said to be Amharas are Amharas, is spoilt by defeatist mentality. It seems they are comfortable with keen obedience. They are incapacitated to the extent of acting like an ordinary housemaid to higher authorities. This bitter reality has come into existence due to age-long propaganda pumped by both TPLF and OPDO on ANDM. 4. ADP is highly porous. As porous as the Amharas themselves. Amharas are the most intermingled people with other ethnics in Ethiopia. Anyone can claim to be Amhara even if they speak Amharic or not. Frankly speaking, the Amharas are supra-ethnic people. This condition has been negatively affecting both the organizations of the Amharas and the people in general as well. The wolves in sheep’s clothes have been gnawing this innocent people for the last 50 years.

Judas Iscariot sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. By the same token, members of ADP, who were carefully handpicked by Meles Zenawi then and now by Abiy Ahmed, both of whom are representatives of the Big Brothers, the CIA and the MI6, if you will add Mossad to the list, have sold the Amhara for some injera and wot as Esau sold his first birthright to his fraternal brother for a bowl of lentil stew. History has kept on repeating itself in every age. Understandably, tomorrow will show us another story which may be diametrically different from that of today. Let’s stay tuned!

The killing in Bahir Dar of relatively sound Amhara leaders in the past month is showing us alarming developments. We can guess that that barbaric killing was designed ahead of time by the so called federal authorities, most of whom are known for their anti-Amhara sentiment, including, of course, those who claim to have drafted and offered them the new roadmap of consolidating power, so that strong nationalists of this region would be off the scene and ODP/OLF could gallop freely in accordance with their whimsical aspirations. As of the time that bad incidence occurred, hundreds of innocent Amharas are being arrested and detained in prisons and are exposed to an untold suffering. The Amhara Region is openly under the siege and emergency rule of ODP/OLF. We are currently hearing that Bahir Dar is full of Oromo military and police officers under the cover of the federal government. It seems it was for this sole purpose of controlling the region that the 33rd degree style of killing was carried out upon the innocent Amharas such as Dr. Ambachew and B/G Asaminew Tsighe.[By the way, the killing could also be a revenge following the failure of one  public conference in Bahir Dar some months back. To suspect is better than not. I see some evil of axes turbulently reacting in unison against the survival of the Amhara and by extension sovereign Ethiopia.]

I do not think there is even one Amhara soldier in the so called Oromia Region now. But why are Oromo militias and security personnel allowed to ‘colonize’ the Amaharas in Bahir Dar and elsewhere in this region? What is going on behind the curtains? What is this agent of Knights Templar and/or the Skulls and Bones, Chief Illuminatus Pastor Colonel Dr. PM Abiy doing? Suppose he succeeds, what is his action plan after eliminating all the Amharas? What would be his gain after all this chaos in the country? Will his gain worth his restless efforts? How is he going to deal with the wrath that is lurking around due to the ocean of blood on his hands?  Surprising! Really surprising.

2) ከክልሉ ፖሊስ በተጨማሪ በጥበቃ ላይ ያሉ፣ የሚገባውን ነገር የሚፈትሹ አማርኛ ቋንቋ በደንብ        የማይችሉ ኦሮምኛ አክሰንት ያላቸው ፌደራል ፖሊሶች ነበሩ።

The excerpt taken from the book of PM Abiy perfectly shows that he is power monger. To that end, he seems to be proud of doing anything under the sun. For your information, the killing of Amharas along with their tokens is not something beyond our galaxy, too. And according to Piccolo Machiavelli, killing and sowing the seed of division, commotion, and suspicion among parties of a nation is the main method of maintaining power until the time the inevitable hurricane comes and wipes out the rotten status quo for good. [NB. The dawn is about to come. Mark my words!]

Finally, I would like to extend my apologies to those sincere ADP members who are genuinely struggling to bring credible social and political changes to the region, though their efforts are hitherto overshadowed by anti- Amhara infiltrators in the party. Let’s have this solace – ‘Tomorrow is another day.’

The post ADP, the Black Sheep of the Amhara appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.