UN Security Council reaffirms commitment to Ethiopia’s sovereignty, political independence and unity
The UN Security Council member countries reaffirms commitment to Ethiopia’s sovereignty, political independence and unity. And acknowledged the efforts by the Government of Ethiopia to provide humanitarian assistance and to provide increased humanitarian access.
Security Council Press Statement on Ethiopia
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Dinh Quy Dang (Viet Nam):
The members of the Security Council noted with concern the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region, Ethiopia.
The members of the Security Council acknowledged the efforts by the Government of Ethiopia to provide humanitarian assistance and to provide increased humanitarian access. The members of the Security Council recognized, nevertheless, that humanitarian challenges remain. They called for a scaled-up humanitarian response and unfettered humanitarian access to all people in need, including in the context of the food security situation.
The members of the Security Council called for a continuation of international relief efforts in a manner consistent with the United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian emergency assistance, including humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. The members of the Security Council noted that insecurity in Tigray constitutes an impediment to the ongoing humanitarian operations and called for a restoration of normalcy.
The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern about allegations of human rights violations and abuses, including reports of sexual violence against women and girls in the Tigray region and called for investigations to find those responsible and bring them to justice. They welcomed the joint investigation by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission into alleged human rights violations and abuses. The members of the Security Council also welcomed the engagement on this issue of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.
The members of the Security Council stressed the need for full compliance with international law.
The members of the Security Council reiterated their strong support to regional and subregional efforts and organizations, namely the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and underscored the importance of their continued engagement.
The members of the Security Council reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, political independence, territorial integrity and unity of Ethiopia.
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Addis Abeba, April 23, 2021- The case of the five defendants on the file of Eskinder Nega, founder of the opposition party Balderas for Genuine Democracy was presented at the Federal Supreme Court, 2nd Appeals Bench this morning to pass a decision on prosecutor’s appeal to overturn a decision made by the Federal High Court, Lideta Branch, First Constitutional and Anti-Terrorism Bench to hold prosecutor’s witnesses hearing in open sessions. Four of the defendants who are under police custody attended the hearing via Plasma TV.
The court hearing set up on April 6, 2021 to hear the decision on prosecutor’s appeal to overturn a decision made by the Federal High Court, Lideta Branch, First Constitutional and Anti-Terrorism Bench to hold prosecutor’s witnesses hearing in an open session was not carried out because neither the defendants nor prosecutors appeared in court. The number of presiding judges assigned to the file was also incomplete.
News: Defendants, prosecutor and a judge no show at hearing in Eskinder Nega’s file https://t.co/uX2asaJNfD The defense team argued that prosecutor is intentionally prolonging the process to prevent their clients from participating in the upcoming election @MahletFasil reports
At today’s hearing, the prosecutor requested for 16 of the witnesses to testify in a closed session and the remaining Five to testify behind curtains. Explaining the need to hide the identity of its witnesses, the prosecutor said that one of its witnesses received threats during the preliminary hearing. The prosecutor also told the court that the witness hearing can be followed by the media and observers via audio.
The defense team on its part argued that concealing the identity of the prosecutor’s witness would prevent them from knowing if there are individuals among the witnesses who are aggrieved at their clients. The lawyers also reminded the court that the prosecutor has not presented evidences for the said threat its witness received .Eskinder Nega told the court that in Ethiopia, this practice is applicable for cases of sexual assault that involves women and children to which the prosecutor responded by explaining the practice being common in foreign countries. The second defendant on the file, Sentayehu Chekol said, “We know that we were arrested at the order of the government. If the court decides to overturn the earlier decision then the claims that the justice system is reformed is all lies.”
The lawyers also suggested that the witnesses can be protected by changing their residents and arming them for self protection. The prosecutor explained that the witnesses are civil servants in Addis Abeba and that changing their residence is not appropriate. As for arming the witnesses for self protection, the prosecutor responded by reminding the country’s security situation making it improper to arm individuals.
After hearing both sides, the judges adjourned the hearing until May 4, 2021 to pass a decision.AS
Gotta rock the vote to transition Ethiopia from dictatorship to democracy!
PERSONAL MEMORANDUM
To: Ethiopian History, The People of Ethiopia, The Cheetah Generation of Ethiopia, The Women of Ethiopia
Subject: Importance of Registering to Vote and Voting on June 5, 2021
Date: April 21, 2021
Will you be in the Hall of Fame or carry a badge of shame to your grave?
On June 5, 2021, Ethiopia will have its first free and fair parliamentary election in its history.
I cannot vote on June 5 with you because I gave up Ethiopian citizenship and took refuge in America during the Derg’s reign of terror.
I could not return to the land of Ethnic Apartheid during the reign of terror of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
In July 2009, I asked myself, “What is it the Ghanaians got, We ain’t got?” I was frankly jealous of Ghana’s nascent democracy.
What the Ghanaians got was the right to vote in a free and fair election. Ethiopians had their elections stolen.
In October 2015, I asked myself, “Why Can’t Ethiopia be Like Ghana?” I wrote the piece to openly and publicly confess how much I envied the people of Ghana for choosing the Way of the Ballot.
I yearned — longed and bellyached and heartached — for the day Ethiopia too like Ghana will have a free and fair election.
That day is upon Ethiopia, NOW!
Since I cannot vote, the next best thing I can do now is to strongly urge all Ethiopians eligible to vote to register and vote.
There are just a few days left before the registration window closes.
Let me make it crystal clear.
I do not plead with you to vote.
Nor will I beg you to vote.
My aim is to convince you beyond a shadow of doubt that your vote on June 5, 2021 will make history. Glorious Ethiopian history!
My aim is to convince you to rock the (boat) vote.
You gotta rock the vote to transition Ethiopia from dictatorship to democracy!
What do I mean by “vote”?
To me, vote means V.O.T.E. (Voice of the Electorate).
Vote means people’s power.
When Ethiopians vote, their voices get heard. Vote = voice.
When Ethiopians vote, they take control of their destiny. Their country’s destiny.
Vote=POWER!
The objective manifestation of the power of the Ethiopian people is their ballot, their vote.
Only the people have the power to delegate their power (their consent) to the government. By casting their ballot. And only for a limited period of time.
The government has no power to give the people power.
A government that rules without the consent of the people is a tyrannical government.
The government is the servant of the people, NEVER their master.
The people of Ethiopia are the masters and sovereign holders of all political power.
The people of Ethiopia entrust their power for a specific period of time to those who compete for their votes and convince them that they will best serve their interests.
No government is legitimate which has not earned the vote of the people in a free and fair election.
When the TPLF masters of Ethnic Apartheid stole elections for decades, I urged Ethiopians to vote, Vote Out Tyranny in Ethiopia.
People of Ethiopia! Whether you like it or not, know it or not, you will make history by voting on not voting on June 5, 2021.
Whether you like it or not, Citizens of Ethiopia over the age of 18 who meet the legal eligibility requirements, YOU have an appointment with destiny, with history on June 5, 2021.
Will you keep your appointment?
If you keep your appointment and vote on June 5, you will have performed an act that few Ethiopians have been privileged to do in their country’s three-thousand-plus year history.
Your name will be enshrined in the Ethiopian Hall of Fame for voting.
If you do not vote on June 5, you will be inducted in the Hall of Shame. You shall carry a badge of shame to your grave!
The ultimate measure of political equality is the right to vote. To choose one’s representatives.
The vote is the most important political tool invented by humankind.
Put differently, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
That is why every vote matters. In Ethiopia. In America.
Of course, the right to vote includes the right not to vote.
But those who choose not to exercise their right to vote have no right to complain about the way they are governed or misgoverned.
Let us learn from the experiences of African Americans and their struggle for the right to vote
In America, black people won the right to vote through centuries of blood, sweat and tears.
Having lived, studied, taught and practiced law in America for over one-half century, I know the supreme power of the VOTE.
Words cannot express the pride I take in the incalculable price my African American brothers and sisters paid to secure and assert their right to vote in America and relentlessly defend their political equality: One person, one vote!
Words also cannot express the shame of the white power structure in America that schemed and plotted to deny African Americans the right to vote and suppress their political voice.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 five years before I arrived in America.
It did not take me long to learn about the legalized oppression and systematic denial of the right to vote of black people in America.
Indeed, I learned about it in my very first college course, American Government 101, a course I proudly taught in college for over thirty years.
Historians suggest the first captive Africans arrived in the Jamestown Colony (later Virginia) in 1619 and that date marked the inception of the dehumanizing institution of slavery in colonial America.
America is called the “land of immigrants”, but free Africans were the only people imported into America as slaves involuntarily and against their will.
Of course, African forcibly enslaved were imported (like commodities) to the “New World” since the beginning of the “Middle Passage” in the second decade of the 16th century.
Africans were enslaved in the Americas because their white enslavers considered them subhuman, indeed no better than livestock.
The right to self-government was reserved for whites. In 1620, English colonists commonly described as “pilgrims”, arrived at Provincetown Harbor, MA armed with the Mayflower Compact.
In that Compact, the men (not women) on the ship agreed to create their own elected government with the power to enact “laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices… for the good of the colony and abide by those laws.”
It is ironic that the English colonial settlers asserted and secured their right to elect and establish their own government before they even set foot on North America, yet it took over 350 years for African Americans to get the same legal right!
When the American colonists declared their independence from Britain in 1776, their liberation slogan was, “No taxation without representation.”
Representation! That is what election is all about.
Representative democracy (a republic) was what the American revolutionaries established in their Constitution.
But the American Constitution was tone deaf to the cries and wails of the African slaves and white women for representation.
Mrs. Abigail Adams, the wife of the future second American President John Adams, four months before the Declaration of Independence wrote to her husband pleading that he “Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.”
Mrs. Adams hoped against hope the American revolution could bring women the right to vote.
American women did not get the right to vote until 1919, 143 years after Mrs. Adams pleaded for women’s representation, with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, many of the American Founders, including George Washington, were slave owners.
They crafted the Constitution with lofty words that rationalized the economic necessity of slavery and went so far as to include slaves as “three-fifths persons” for the purpose apportionment (representation).
In other words, slaves can be considered “voters” for the singular purpose of giving more population to states with fewer whites to have more representation in the House of Representatives.
When you do not have the right to vote, you are not a full person. Only a fraction of a person. One-eighth, one-quarter, one-half or three-fifth person.
Perhaps not a person at all.
To become a whole person, one must exercise one’s right to vote.
It took the American Civil War and ratification of the Civil War Amendments to put a formal end to slavery and give black people the right to vote.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished “involuntary servitude”; the 14th Amendment provided “equal protection of the law” to any person in a state and the 15th Amendment guaranteed the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The right to vote for black people was the greatest threat to white supremacy in America.
In the eyes of Southern whites particularly, the most dangerous person in America was a black man/woman determined to vote.
The vote is the great equalizer. The vote was the antidote to the poison of white supremacy.
Southern whites in America found all sorts of ways to keep black people from voting.
After the Civil War, they enacted Black Codes to restrict their voting rights of the newly emancipated black people and perpetuate the slave plantation system.
They enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce legal segregation to physically separate whites and blacks to ensure black people remained inferior to whites.
Southern whites used every trick in the book to deny black people the right to vote.
They gave black voters “literacy tests”, tests that challenged even seasoned constitutional lawyers let alone black people who were forced to become illiterate by anti-literacy laws.
Eligible black voters were required to pay a poll tax before they could cast a ballot.
Eligible black voters were excluded in “white primaries” which allowed only white people to vote.
White state legislatures created legislative districts that grossly underrepresented areas with black populations. In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court had to intervene to establish the principle of “one person, one vote” requiring legislative districts to represent people not geographical areas.
It took 345 years for black people in America to exercise the right to vote supported by law that has teeth!
In 1965, Congress, guided by the skillful hands of President Lyndon Johnson, passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
During the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, Johnson remarked:
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.”
Over three centuries and half, black people suffered lynching, terrorism perpetrated by white supremacists and systematic dehumanization in their struggle to assert their right to vote and secure the political equality guaranteed them under the supreme law of the land.
Once they began exercising their right to vote, it was a completely different political game!
Just one example: In Mississippi alone, the poorest state in the United States, “black voter registration ballooned from 7% in 1964 to 67% just five years later.” That meant “white politicians in Mississippi were wooing the most influential members of the black community.”
The most segregationist, dyed-in-the-wool racist politician had to respect the black vote!
The modern American Civil Rights Movement “the greatest mass movement in modern American history”, was about two things: the right to vote and ending discrimination.
In 1957, just as the civil rights struggle was gathering steam, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., made his case for the right to vote with the fierce urgency of now a speech at the Lincoln Memorial:
So our most urgent request to the president of the United States and every member of Congress is to give us the right to vote.Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will by the power of our vote write the law on the statute books of the southern states and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence. Give us the ballot and we will transform the salient misdeeds of blood-thirsty mobs into calculated good deeds of orderly citizens. Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will and send to the sacred halls of Congressmen who will not sign a Southern Manifesto, because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice. Give us the ballot and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will “do justly and love mercy,” and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the divine. Give us the ballot and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court’s decision of May 17, 1954.
Lo and behold!
African Americans changed the American political landscape in 2020 with the ballot in hand!
Before the South Carolina presidential primary, everyone said Joe Biden is washed up and done.
The Republicans were convinced they had the Georgia Senate seats bagged and tagged.
But African American voters, including Ethiopian Americans, managed to pull off a miracle.
Georgia sent a black man and a Jew to the Senate.
African Americans in Georgia voted and determined the destiny of America for the next four years!
Georgia, home of Dr. Martin Luther King, made it happen.
Georgia, where I got my undergraduate degree and served as a “Governor’s Intern” in 1972 during the Jimmy Carter’s administration made it happen.
Donald Trump tried to steal 11,780 votes in Georgia so he can win the presidency!
True power comes from the ballot box and convincing ideas
My Ethiopian Compatriots: YOU NOW HAVE THE BALLOT IN YOUR HANDS!
It is the most powerful political weapon ever created by humankind.
The old slogan about political power growing out of the barrel of the gun has no place in the 21st century.
On November 3, 2020, the TPLF tried to grab power by the barrel of the gun and ended up in the trash bin of history.
Today, the TPLF’s hired guns kill innocent people believing they can grab power by the barrel of the gun. They too will be dumped on the trash heap of history.
So, there is only one way in and out of political power.
That is the way of the ballot!
That is the way of winning the hearts and minds of the Ethiopian people!
So, the collective task of all Ethiopians, including those in the diaspora, should be to ensure the June 5, 2020 election will be “free and fair”.
“Free and fair election” is not a campaign slogan. It is an objective standard.
I am proud to say I have my own standards for “free and fair” election in Ethiopia.
Reduced to its bare essentials, to have a free and fair election certain preconditions must be met: citizens must, as a civic duty and moral imperative, exercise their right to vote; the political space must be open for political parties to work and campaign freely; an independent election commission must be established to independently and impartially administer elections as well as an independent and impartial judiciary to deal with election disputes; political parties must be able to assemble peacefully; a robust, independent, professional and responsible media must inform the public on the issues and civil society institutions must support democratic practices (not act as unofficial political parties).
Of course, there are many other elements, constitutional and political, that must be met in order to have a free and fair election such as secret ballot, orderly voter registration process to prevent voter fraud, election observers and other similar requirements.
I have been waiting to see a free and fair election in Ethiopia for decades.
I have written about free and fair election in dozens of commentaries over the past decade and half. [1]
Let us be realistic.
The June 5, 2021 election will not be perfect.
In just the past few months, America with its touted 234-year democratic election process, has shown us how imperfect an election can be.
Donald Trump trumpeting his claim of “stolen election” nearly destroyed the temple of American representative democracy when his “Proud Boys and Girls” attacked the Capitol.
Trump made America the election laughingstock of the world.
Of course, Ethiopia is no stranger to stolen elections.
The TPLF has been Election Theft, Inc. in Ethiopia for decades.
The TPLF stole the 2005 election in broad daylight and jailed leaders and members of rival parties.
To add insult to injury, the TPLF claimed to have won 99.6 percent of the parliamentary seats in 2010. In 2015, the TPLF claimed to have won 100 percent of the seats and got President Barack Obama and his National Security Advisor Susan Rice to certify it as “democratic”.
It breaks my heart to realize that the right to vote should have been most sacred for a black president and a black woman advisor.
Unfortunately, when they reached the sky, they forgot their roots.
Ethiopians: Vote and defeat the enemies of Ethiopian democracy!
There are many domestic and foreign enemies of democracy in Ethiopia.
Today, the remnants of the dead and gone TPLF and their Western supporters, including the old guard corporate media “presstitutes”, “K” Street Washington lobbyists, inside the Washington beltway think tanks pseudointellectuals and others have weaponized lies and disinformation to sabotage democracy in Ethiopia.
Today, there are terrorists killing innocent Ethiopians believing they can stop the June 5 election and plunge Ethiopia into ethnic and religious civil war.
THEY WILL FAIL!
The ballot is the stake that can put to permanent rest the vampires who spill innocent blood in Ethiopia.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that,” said Dr. King.
I say, we cannot drive out the Forces of Darkness in Ethiopia by going to the Dark Side of the Bullet.
Ethiopians must be on the Light Side of the Ballot to drive out the Dark Side of the Bullet and become beacons of humanity, unity and prosperity.
Ethiopia at peace…: Let us build the New Ethiopia, the New City Upon the Hill, one ballot at a time
It is time to replace bitterness with reconciliation; hate with love that heals the community; revenge with forgiveness; despair with hope; hurt with healing; fear with courage; division with unity; doubt with faith; shame with honor; deceit with candor and sincerity; anger with reason; cruelty with kindness and caring; enmity with friendship; duplicity with openness; complacency with action; indifference with passion; incivility with gracefulness; suspicion with trust; selfishness with altruism; dishonesty with integrity; convenience with virtue; cunning with scruples; ignorance with knowledge; benightedness with imagination; acrimony with civility, desire with fulfillment and sniping and carping with broad national dialogue. The time to talk and act is now!
The time is at hand for our dreams of an Ethiopia at peace.
That is why every eligible Ethiopian must register and vote on June 5, 2021.
Let there be no doubt!
Democracy will come to Ethiopia just like we will finish the GERD.
The Forces of Darkness within and without Ethiopia cannot stop it.
The June 5 election will be held.
June 5, 2021 shall be the day we officially break ground for the building of the New Ethiopia, that City Upon the Hill shining over Africa and the world.
June 5, 2021 shall live in glory in Ethiopian history.
June 5, 2021 shall be a scared date when all Ethiopians – men and women, young and old, Christian and Muslim, rich and poor, the educated and uneducated, the urban and rural – will come together and take a vow to
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; to pledge Ethiopian shall not lift up sword against another Ethiopia, neither shall future generations learn war; to commit to the Way of the Ballot and forever forsake the way of the bullet and build a rainbow nation at peace with itself and its neighbors.
I say to the People of Ethiopia, “Register to vote. Vote on June 5, 2021.” Teach those who have chosen the evil path of the bullet, the ballot is mightier than bullet.
To the young people of Ethiopia, I say “ROCK THE VOTE!”
Rock the (boat) vote!
Gotta rock the vote to transition Ethiopia from dictatorship to democracy!
To the women of Ethiopia I say, “Get up! Stand up! Stand up and cast your ballot!”
Remember to help our Senior Citizens to register and to vote on June 5, 2021.
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA!
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA WHO VOTE ON JUNE 5, 2021!
The GERD is anticipated to provide 6,200 megawatts of hydroelectric power to a region lacking it. Approximately 60% of Ethiopians do not have electricity, while 99% of Egyptians are said to have it due to hydroelectric dams in Egypt, on the Nile River.
by Obang Metho
Part II article that focus on external forces that exert an influence on deteriorating conditions in Ethiopia. April 20, 2021
“A compromise to Egypt’s water share is a red line, and our response [if our water share is affected] will affect the stability of the whole region,” …
(A recent comment made by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi)
Some Ethiopians seem to be on the wrong side of an Egyptian proxy war against their own country. As ethnic-based killing and violence explodes in Ethiopia, the country has become a place where gruesome crimes against other human beings are committed with little remorse or accountability. It could trigger more massive killings, even genocide.
It is the responsibility of those who value every human life and the national unity of Ethiopia to do something about it. For years, Egypt has been attacking Ethiopian national unity by stoking the fires of division. It is finding fertile ground among ethno-nationalists, but is also strongly reinforced by Ethiopia’s governmental model of ethnic federalism and our ethnic-based Constitution, which could also be called institutionalized tribalism.
We, the people of Ethiopia, have a choice to say no; however, instead, some among us are fanning the flames of ethnic-based hatred, the desire for ethnic-based vengeance for crimes past and present and the dehumanization of others, based on identity. Never before have we seen such a widespread movement of ethnic-based hatred and violence as is now sweeping across the country. If it continues, we exponentially increase the risk of losing the whole country to anarchy and violence, played out against each other, our fellow-citizens.
No single ethnic group will win if our country breaks apart, like Yugoslavia. If we participate in the destruction, or do not try to rise above it, or if we fail to warn others of the danger, who can we blame but ourselves? Those of us who care about living in peace and greater prosperity with each other, must get involved; however, as fear increases, many are giving up hope of national unity and; and instead, are returning to their ethnic-based communities as they are put on the defensive.
It is important to consider what is behind all of this and how we can resist falling into the trap that will defeat us all. We are not simply looking at Ethiopians, but we must look beyond our borders to be more fully aware of external forces directed against us and our peace. Egypt is one of these external forces, and has been for years, even now openly speaking out about it
What does Egypt want?
1) Control of the Nile
Egypt wants complete control of the Nile. As mentioned, this is not new to us, but has been openly articulated by Egyptian President Morsi; and now by President al-Sisi, who recently warned reporters at a press conference on March 29, 2021, in response to the dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Egypt’s water rights, threatening the following:
“Nobody will be permitted to take a single drop of Egypt’s water, otherwise the region will fall into unimaginable instability,”….
“If it happens, there will be inconceivable instability in the region that no one could imagine,”…
“A compromise to Egypt’s water share is a red line, and our response [if our water share is affected] will affect the stability of the whole region,” …
“Hostile action is ugly and has significant repercussions that could last for years, because nations do not forget,”
Morsi had also made grim threats to Ethiopia while history documents the clear exclusion of Ethiopia from any previous decision-making in regard to the use of Nile waters, despite the fact that 85% of the water originates in Ethiopia. The last agreement divided the water between Egypt, who was given 66% of the allocation, and the Sudan, who was given 22%, with the rest to evaporation. Ethiopia received no allotment.
The GERD is anticipated to provide 6,200 megawatts of hydroelectric power to a region lacking it. Approximately 60% of Ethiopians do not have electricity, while 99% of Egyptians are said to have it due to hydroelectric dams in Egypt, on the Nile River. Now, the argument centers on the speed of filling the dam, as well Egypt demanding a binding legal agreement that guarantees Egypt control over the flow. Experts have indicated that the hydroelectric dam will not have a significant impact on the flow of water to Egypt.
What President al-Sisi must not understand is that Ethiopia does not receive a single drop of water from Egypt. Instead, it is actually Ethiopia that could have made these kinds of unwise and irresponsible statements; however, Ethiopia has chosen not to do so because in this global society, we must find ways to share resources and to work together for the common good, especially with our regional neighbors.
2) Control of the Red Sea Shipping Lane
The second goal of Egypt has been to maintain control of the Red Sea. The Red Sea may be one of the most important sea lanes in the world. Prior to the former regime, Ethiopia had a navy with access to the Red Sea and its ports; but now, because of the politics of ethno-nationalists and separatists, Ethiopia was made to be completely landlocked. One analyst, Gregory R. Copley comments on this in his article from June 7, 2013, Egypt’s Instability Triggers a New Proxy War Against Ethiopia and its Allies:
Egypt’s Morsi Government has initiated a return to covert war against Ethiopia, which controls the source of the Blue Nile, Egypt’s and Sudan’s principal source of water. The result will almost certainly lead to an increased level of insecurity in the strategic Red Sea/Suez sea lane and in the upper Nile riparian states, such as South Sudan, with some impact on global energy markets. Certainly it promises to see greater instability in the Horn of Africa at a time when Western media portrayals hint at a return to stability in, for example, Somalia.
He goes on to say:
The campaign includes a major media offensive at the alleged threat, and also included the commitment of major political, intelligence, and military resources to a trenchant [incisive] reversal of Egypt’s brief period of rapprochement [efforts to bring together] with Upper Nile riparian states, particularly Ethiopia.
This amounts to a full — even expanded — resumption of the indirect war to isolate Ethiopia politically and economically and to ensure that it cannot attract foreign investment and political support. It also attempts to ensure that Ethiopia’s main avenues for trade, through the Red Sea ports in Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somaliland, become closed to it.
At the time, he was speaking about President Morsi, but President al-Sisi’s position is obviously no different, especially in light of these recent comments about the Nile and the fact that a large percentage of income for Egypt comes from their domination of the Red Sea.
A Brainwashing Media Campaign?
For at least a decade, I have been aware of efforts on the part of Egypt to incite division between Ethiopian ethnic groups, particularly the Oromo, the Amhara and the Tigray. Even I was approached in an attempt to deepen the animosity between my own ethnic group, the Anuak, in regard to others.
One of the chief inciters was Egyptian. His name was Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, possibly a fake name and persona, who I believed had to be confronted with his grandiose efforts to spread and deepen hate and conflict among Ethiopians, but at the same time, Ethiopians had to be warned not to fall for it. This was eleven years ago.
At that time, I sent an open letter to Ethiopians and Africans regarding Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, click at the link to read the letter in English and click here for the Amharic, warning Ethiopians to consider whether this man was seeking a fragmented and weakened Ethiopia/Horn of Africa so we all could be divided, controlled and exploited. At the time, I posed the following question:
Did you ever wonder how and why Dr. Megalommatis manages to write article after article claiming love for the Oromo—with 22 articles focused on just the Oromos in only the last month—or other “subjugated people” of Ethiopia as he labels them; while claiming deep hatred, almost exclusively directed against the Amhara, who he calls “beasts”—with 34 articles in the last month, where he viciously blasts Amhara and/or “Fake Ethiopia?” Why is he spending so much time and effort on stirring up such anger? Is he being paid for it and if so, by whom?
His was an intense media campaign that began over a decade ago with the goal of brainwashing some of the ethnic groups in Ethiopia, hoping to destabilize the country, similar to al-Sisi’s recently stated goal. Undoubtedly, it has helped to fuel some of the fires burning across the nation now, that might achieve the goal of destabilization. To what degree has this kind of hate-mongering incited what is going on now? Sadly, it is working.
STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!
The ethnic-based killing of human beings in Ethiopia has reached such a tragic point that one feels like blocking one’s ears, closing one’s eyes and screaming out at the top of one’s voice, “STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!”
Each killing ends a human life; a life given breath, value and purpose by our Creator. Each death is of one individual person, abruptly taken away as if that one life was meaningless; yet, every human being has a name, a family, a God-given purpose and a future that now will never be realized. Those who kill have forgotten— or never understood— their real identity is as a human being— before all other identity factors— especially ethnicity.
People who commit such inhumane acts cannot be defined by ethnicity, as they do not represent many others within their identity group who vehemently condemn such acts. However, what accounts for the ethnic hatred, mob mentality and the hardening of the hearts and souls of those who commit these crimes and jeopardize our collective future?
Recently, I released an alert, warning Ethiopians of the danger that lies ahead if we do not do anything to stop it. Click at the link to read the alert: http://www.solidaritymovement.org/210407-Ethiopia-is-at-Risk-of-Becoming-a-Failed-State.php. That danger is a possible failed state. It will affect all of us if do not take action against this explosion of ethnic-based hatred, the spirit of revenge, brutal killings, violence, destruction and the displacement going on all over Ethiopia. Many of us, especially our youth— some of whom are participating in it— may not even live to regret it. Let us protect them from falling into this trap now!
Most of the ethnic-based violence has been in Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, Amhara and Tigray Region; however, in the days following the article’s release, we learned of many more killings and many thousands of more persons displaced in places like the South, Afar, and the Somali region. On April 17, a shocking videos and pictures captured the tragic killing of innocent people in the town of Ataye in North Shewa. People were targeted due to their being of Amhara ethnicity.
Those who are targeting others by ethnicity do not represent many others of their same ethnicity; yet, it has created a rush back to one’s ethnic group for “safety” due to heightened fears everywhere. With every killing, the desire for retaliation increases. This is an enormous problem in that it creates cycles of vengeance and loss.
For the last several decades, we have been seeking our freedom and rights; let it not be destroyed before our eyes. Instead, let us now join together to work out our differences and to make an effort to find enough consensus to enable us to move ahead. We must resist the temptation to fall into strongholds of lies, manipulation and exploitation by foreign forces. Let us end ethnic-based politics, which are a threat to all of us.
Let us seek the wellbeing of others, “putting humanity before ethnicity” or any other differences, and upholding the freedom and rights of all our people for not only is it right to care about our neighbors, near and far, but “no one or no one ethnic group will be free until all are free.”
Let the conversation begin. Most importantly, may God help Ethiopians to know that whenever you kill another person, you kill a part of yourself. We are a country that desperately needs truth, healing and forgiveness. We have made many mistakes. Let us make a turn around and make it right this time. May God help us to love our neighbors, near and far!
____________________ For more information contact Mr. Obang Metho, Executive Director of the SMNE. Email: [email protected]
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ሺፈራዉ አበበ – April 22, 2021
