Ethiopiachen-One Country One People ETHIOPIACHEN

ESAT RADIO SAT 24 SEPT 2016

Two faces. Town full of pretenders. A bunch of fakes. Selfish.Cowards. And a pioneer of protest for the last 25 years. Now make no mistake, my definition doesn’t cover the entire community so to speak. There are caring and responsible Ethiopians in the midst.
Diaspora….. Prove my definition of you wrong and I will apologize.
If you truly care and feel the pain of our people as you have been claiming over the years, then do the necessary. Boycott buying each and every products which is labeled and shipped out of Ethiopia to the stores near you.

By purchasing this products, you are supporting the oppressors back home indirectly. Because their company is the one that snatches from our people and provide them to you in exchange of your dollars.
That includes injera, shiro, Berbere. Ambo’weha and so forth. Boycott using Ethiopian airlines to fly abroad. There is so much you can do to make a change. Carrying flags, billboards and marching by the streets of European cites by itself doesn’t take you anywhere.
So now is the right time to change your 25 years old protest to action. Choose a leader to lead you and have one constant voice.

By Alem Mamo

“We live in the age of the refugee, the age of the exile.”

—–Ariel Dorfman

Perplexingly, the United Kingdom, European Union and the World Bank on September 21, 2016 announced their plan to create a $500 million “industrial park” that will create jobs for 100,000 refugees in Ethiopia.[1] Well, in hindsight the news would have been an exciting one for all of us who agonize about the suffering of refugees. However, when one takes a closer look, the proposed plan, the concept as well as operational fallacies, becomes clearer. The proposed scheme doesn’t address the problem from its core. In fact, it may well exacerbate and further complicate the issue.

Firstly, the plan in its administrative and organizational framework is utterly flawed to put it mildly. Let’s first begin with the proposed project’s primary partner, in this case, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) regime in Addis Ababa. Anyone, let alone international policy makers at the highest level, such as the EU, UK, and the World Bank should know the unfolding national political and security crisis in Ethiopia. The country is in the middle of major social discontent that is demanding fundamental and comprehensive political and economic policy change, including the removal of the regime from power. In this context, to make a deal on an issue as critical as this is like betting on a dead horse.

In addition, it sounds like déjà vu from a recent past. Remember Muammar Gaddafi? When he demanded that the EU should pay Libya at least €5bn a year to stop irregular African immigration and avoid a “black Europe”? Although the EU didn’t pay Gaddafi €5bn a year ransom it agreed to pay him €50m for three years.[2] Well, obviously, we all know how that deal went down.

In this context, why is the EU, and the rest of the Western powers, refusing to learn a lesson from history? At least from the recent ones. Are the UK, EU, and World Bank resuscitating a dying regime in Ethiopia against the will of the people? Could this be another discriminatory policy of the EU and its partners against black Africans, as Gaddafi argued, to avoid “black Africa” invading and diluting Europe’s identity? (The issue of prejudice in this case could apply to both refugees and the people of Ethiopia fighting for democracy and freedom.) The former British Prime Minister David Cameron once described the refugee situation as ‘swarm’ like a locust or some kind of disaster. This kind of thinking is particularly focused on the refugees of Calais who almost exclusively are from Africa. In response to the Calais refugees, the former UK Prime Minister also offered dogs and fences.[3]

Ethiopia under the TPLF rule is one of the main refugee originating country. It is not the ideal oasis where refugees could be settled for along term. The reasons why Ethiopians are leaving their country in droves is the same reason as the rest of refugee originating countries: authoritarian rule, instability, human rights violations, corruption, ethnic kleptocracy, and conflict. So, why is a regime that created the circumstances for Ethiopians to leave their homeland becoming a partner in a refugee assistance program. Isn’t the regime itself the problem? Furthermore, the regime has broken all international conventions and rules, including the basic tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) vis-à-vis citizen’s rights of assembly, expression, and organizing, and many other international conventions. Why do we expect that it will respect the international conventions on refugees?

It is obvious the EU and its partners are desperate to find a solution for the refugee problem, especially stopping the flow north via North Africa and the Mediterranean. It is indeed heart wrenching to see desperate refugees, week after week, crammed on dinghy boats facing the elements on unfriendly seas. The stories are harrowing and horrifying to see fellow human beings go through such risk and danger to reach to both physical and psychological safety. However, the solution to this complex problem is not outsourcing or building an ‘industrial park’ governed and managed by an authoritarian regime. By setting up the EU-funded and sponsored scheme, the EU is in fact trying to evade its international obligations to protect refugees and is shifting the responsibility to a country with a dismal human rights record. How would the EU and its partners guarantee the proposed ‘industrial park’ complies with EU labour laws and standards and protection of human rights?

To contemplate this as a solution is an insult to human intelligence, particularly to the intelligence of the refugees themselves. Moreover, the whole scheme has the smell of the old colonial thinking where by the viceroys and the governors appoint a convenient tribal chief to do their dirty work. It is always important to remember the fact that when the colonial powers arrived at the shores of Africa they never asked for permission or consent from the people of Africa or the rulers at the time. In this case, the chosen tribal chief is the TPLF regime with a well documented record of not just human rights violations, along with extrajudicial killings, torture, and mass arrest.

Moreover, the industrial park potentially will be built on land illegally and unlawfully appropriated from citizens, which will further compound and fuel the current uprising, as one of the main grievances of citizens is land acquisition and appropriation by the regime. The issue of land grabbing for foreign agricultural firms, such as European flower farms, is ravaging the country and creating massive environmental and social catastrophes. Millions are displaced, and land, air and water are poisoned by pesticides and other chemicals.

Youth unemployment in Ethiopia is one of the highest on the continent. The regime’s dismal performance in creating jobs both for youth and the wider public is also one of the cornerstones of the rejection of the regime by citizens. In this reality, the EU and its partners’ strategy to create jobs for refugees is like building a sandcastle that subsequently will be swept away when the tide reaches shore.

The refugee problem is real, and it requires a well thought out and comprehensive approach. Refugees shouldn’t be used as a reward or a gift for a regime that doesn’t respect the basic rights of its citizens, let alone being concerned about refugees. In the name of humanitarianism, the EU is using refugees as tokens and sacrificial lambs by a regime known for blackmail. Let’s not use refugees to embolden those who have no respect for human life.

In addition, the regime in Addis Ababa is partially responsible for refugee crisis in Eritrea, South Sudan, and Somalia. Rewarding someone for the problem they have created in the first place and seeing them as a solution is wrong headed. Even if this deal is done with a legitimate government that has the consent of the Ethiopian people (the current regime doesn’t), job creation for refugees means two things: first, permanently settling them in the country, or potentially encouraging others to flee hoping for employment.

Considering all this, what should be the right course of action to address the refugee problem? First and foremost, the EU and its partners should examine their own policy towards the refugee originating countries, including Ethiopia. Instead of collaborating with authoritarian forces, provide practical support to pro-democracy forces. This applies to all refugee originating countries. Falling into the trap of “fighting terrorism” Western policy makers should by now realize the fact that embracing authoritarian regimes doesn’t work. It may give false comfort in a short term, but ultimately the partnership with such regimes often ends in disaster. Again, it is worthwhile to remember Gadhafi.

If the building of an industrial park is a key necessity for the refugee dilemma, it should be built somewhere there is more democratic and inclusive form of governance, such as Kenya, for example (of course this requires the consent of the Kenyan people).

Finally, the practical and durable solution for the refugee crisis is not the building of some industrial park on a land appropriated from citizens who make their daily living on it. The solution is working with citizens who are determined to build a free, democratic, and equitable system in their countries. Economic justice, political freedom, and the building of inclusive and equitable society is the solution not more camps and sweatshops. The EU, UK, and the World Bank are a big part of the problem, and the solution, therefore, should be self-examination of their own policies, not sweeping the problem under the rug.

The writer can be reached at alem6711@gmail.com

[1]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37433085

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/20/eu-refugee-libya-gaddafi

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/commentisfree/2015/aug/03/cameron-swarm-plague-god-    migrants-calais

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

Author’s Note: This is the third successive commentary I have written on the intensifying T-TPLF disinformation campaign in Ethiopia. On September 5, I  announced that the T-TPLF would soon roll out a massive disinformation campaign to discredit the widespread popular uprising against its oppressive rule in Ethiopia. On September 18, I wrote a second commentary debunking the T-TPLF’s outrageous  claims of an impending or imminent genocide in Ethiopia.

The T-TPLF disinformation campaign I announced in early September is now in full swing. In this commentary, I address the absurd and laughable claims of Debretsion Gebremichael, T-TPLF Chief  Disinformation Officer (CDO).

I am acutely aware of the old saying that one should “never argue with someone who  believes their own lies.” While I would much prefer to cross-examine liars in the courtroom, absent that I have no option but to argue against them in the court of public opinion.

I have crossed paths with some stone cold pathological liars in my day, and the one thing I recall most vividly about them is that they are all experts at deceiving not others but themselves. But CDO Debretsion and his T-TPLF gang take the cake when it comes to lying; they are in a class by themselves. They are the masters of lies, damned lies and statislies (statistical lies).

CDO Debretsion is the third T-TPLF big gun in as many weeks to slither out of the T-TPLF lair to wage a war of disinformation on the Ethiopian people. Abaye Tsehaye and Seyoum Mesfin, are the first two O.G.’s (original gangsters to use modern parlance) to crawl out of the T-TPLF woodwork a couple of weeks ago to circle the wagon around the T-TPLF Beast, cry havoc  and verbally let loose the dogs of genocide in the face of massive popular uprising and resistance against T-TPLF rule in Ethiopia.

The T-TPLF disinformation game seems plain enough. They are playing good cop, bad cops with the Ethiopian people.

Abaye Tsehaye and Seyoum Mesfin are running around trying to freak out people with their ridiculous genocide claims. Like Chicken Little who ran around saying, “The sky is falling”, Abaye and Seyoum are running around claiming a genocide is about to take place in Ethiopia.

CDO Debretsion says there is no genocide. In fact,  his very words are, “It is not possible to have a people to people conflict”(genocide?)  in Ethiopia. He admits there are isolated “disturbances” and “conflicts” (not uprisings) caused by a few criminals and troublemakers, but no genocide.

Which one of the forked tongue serpents to believe? Abaye Tsehaye,  Seyoum Mesfin or Debretsion Gebremichael?

CDO Debretsion seems to be out on a charm offensive. With the pentagrammed T-TPLF flag to his right, the Prince Charming of the T-TPLF said it’s all about mind over matter. The T-TPLF doesn’t mind, and the people of Ethiopia don’t matter. He said the Ethiopian people have the wrong perception about the truth of the T-TPLF.  They are seeing things like the purple cow and pink elephant that no one has ever seen. They are making up stuff and stuffing their heads with made up stuff.

CDO Debretsion hectored that everything is perception. He said, “if someone calls a bright day is a dark night enough times, the bright day will be perceived as a dark night” by the people.

On this question I concede. I surrender!

Who knows more about darkness than the Prince of Darkness himself?

Who knows more about darkness than the master of the Dark Side?

Not those on the Light Side of the Force.

Interestingly, CDO Debretsion borrows his darkness metaphor from Nazi propaganda  Reichsminister Joseph Goebbels’ who said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

But CDO Debretsion conveniently omitted the rest of Goebbles admonition:

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

The truth is the greatest enemy of state disinformation.

CDO Debretsion’s Interview

In his videotaped interview, CDO Debretsion waxed repetitiously eloquent on a number issues and effectively told Ethiopians that they are just too dumb and too stupid to figure out the real deal about the T-TPLF.  He heaped insult upon injury by caricaturing them as a people living in La La land. For the CDO, the Ethiopian people are incapable of distinguishing  between perception and reality. What they see is not what they see but a figment of their dim-witted  imagination. They need to be re-educated into seeing reality. Call out the media to get the job done!

CDO Debretsion’s interview is manifestly designed to achieve a number of  propaganda and political objectives:

1)         The current popular uprising in Ethiopia is a minor disturbance limited only to Gonder.

2)        The disturbance in Gonder is the work of a few foreign agents and criminals. There is no popular uprising against the T-TPLF in Gonder or anywhere else.

3)        The disturbance in Gonder is triggered by the incompetence of the local leadership and administration who failed miserably in their official duties. They should be replaced.

4)        The notion of Tigrean supremacy in Ethiopian politics and society is a figment of the imagination of diabolically misguided people. Tigrean supremacy is a perception that exists in fiction, not in objective reality.

5)         The T-TPLF suffers from a failure of communication in not educating the people of Ethiopia there is no Tigrean supremacy.  It is all a figment of their imagination. The Ethiopian people are so blind that they cannot tell the difference between light and dark just as they cannot tell there is no such thing as Tigrean supremacy.

6)        There is a great need for a media (dis)information campaign telling the Ethiopian people how Tigreans do not practice ethnic supremacy.

7)         The reality of Ethiopian politics is that each ethnic group in its own kilil (Bantustan) is supreme.

8)        Ethnic federalism is the ultimate safeguard against ethnic supremacy and domination.

9)        The only truth is the T-TPLF’s truth, everything else is mere perception. The Ethiopian people have the wrong perception about the T-TPLF whose only mission has been to pay untold sacrifices for the good and benefit of the Ethiopian people.

10)      If the people of Ethiopia would simply stop believing their lying eyes and lying ears which render the T-TPLF as a bloodthirsty gang of criminals, they could see the kind, friendly, gentle, benevolent, loving and humane  face of the T-TPLF.

In his interview,  CDO Debretsion addressed a number of issues including the  recent “disturbance” (uprising) in Gonder and the alleged displacement of Tigreans as a consequence, the “baseless” claims of Tigrean supremacy and ethnic federalism as the panacea to Ethiopia’s political and social ills (my English translation below):

            (Concerning the “conflict”, “disturbance” in Gonder)

… I only know about (the situation) as a (top) leader. Those who know the details (of the conflict) are different bodies. I don’t follow that closely… I know there have been conflicts from Sudan and those that returned from Sudan.

How we have to see this. The main thing is, as has been explained in a different way, this is not a people to people matter (conflict).  We know some of our people from Tigray and from the other places are suffering damage (in Gonder in the uprising). We understand there are some who want to spread the fire (of  conflict).  The people who live in the particular area (Gonder) are Amhara people. We know they are defending others  (non-Amharas) so they do not suffer damage. There are many actions (criminal) that have been committed. A limited number of people have sought to inflict damage on the properties of Tigreans (in Gonder). Therefore (these actions) are not related with the people (of Gonder at large).  There is no mobilization against Tigreans anywhere. But we know there are a limited number of people involved (in committing crimes against Tigreans). We know they (few individuals) have committed specific (criminal) acts against Tigreans. We know it is the action of a few. There is a movement with own aims. The government and killil (government) are following up on this.

But this is not the question that needs to be asked. As you have seen the analysis, the solution cannot be found only by focusing on the conflict (confrontation). We need to look at the broader situation, problems in the (local) leadership, denying proper governance to the people, answering questions in a timely manner, (failure) to recognize there are problems like this.  And there are mobilizations around this. This has itself created problems, and as we solve problems around it, we solve other problems as well. Other administrative problems, development questions. And it is possible to entertain and solve political questions (as well). That is what we see.

The conflict (in Gonder) is a limited issue. It does not reveal  the (the whole)  situation. The (Ethiopian) society is very sad about the kind of discussion being conducted in different forums. This is not something EPRDF brought about. People (of Tigray and Gonder) have been living together (for a long time). Not only living together, but also married to each other and lived as one family… But there are few whose aim is to trigger people-to-people conflict (ethnic conflict).  It is improper. There has been damage… That is what the recent discussions have been about.

It is not possible to have people to people (ethnic) conflict…  We cannot have a special solution for the (little) conflict (in Gonder). There is no solution for the damage done to one Tigrean alone. The main thing is about peace and stability. As that is addressed, the other (ethnic conflict) issue will resolve itself.

        (Concerning allegations of Tigrean supremacy in Ethiopian society)

There is no smoothing going in thinking. It is up and down. Perception becomes reality. Something (that is not) looks like the real thing. (For example), there is light in this room. If it is said (repeatedly) it is dark, (people will believe) it is dark. It is dark, even though there is light. The perception becomes reality. This is because there is something missing. It is because the proper response has not been communicated (to the Ethiopian people) and as a result a balanced (effective) job (in the media) has not been done. Something  that is not being found as true (because too many lies about Tigrean supremacy have gone unchallenged).

Truth itself does not speak. It is necessary to reveal the truth in different ways through the media and other means. The (state) media has to do the proper job on this.  It is the (state) media that should present the truth in different ways, to show (if there is) weakness, growth or going backwards and other issues. But they (media) must reflect (spread) the truth.

[There can be no Tigrean supremacy because of federalism.] Federalism means all people are equal. Everyone administers their own (affairs). There is no such thing as (one ethnic group being)  above or below. It is not about having big or small members (of ethnic groups). Tigreans administer themselves. Oromos and Southern peoples and Somalis (administer themselves). That means they own their (government). The foundation is equality. It means administer your own administration… In Amhara kilil, Tigreans cannot be administrators. In Gambella, the administrator cannot be Tigrean. This (ethnic federalism arrangement) does not give others a chance to be supreme. Those of same ethnicity administer themselves.  If you say (Tigreans) are supreme (bosses) here and there, it is baseless. But it is all perception. Everywhere including at the kebele (local) level.  This (Tigrean supremacy) is not the reality. It is baseless (to make such a claim). It is like saying it is dark when the light is out. But if you repeat it, they could say it is dark. We have not done a good job educating the Ethiopian people on (federalism), how the country is administered. That reality has not been (conveyed).  To say Tigreans are supreme (everywhere), that is not the reality. That is a zero. Zero. If there is a Tigrean person (outside Tigray kilil), he works as an ordinary man of wealth (investor). So we have a problem of perception, (not educating the people). It is not that Tigrean supremacy is true, but (our) media efforts have been deficient. The media have the responsibility (to spread the truth) that there is no Tigrean supremacy…

CDO Debretsion Gebremichael: Disinformation by doublespeak and doublethink

George Orwell in his essay  on politics and the English language wrote:

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind…

There are few better examples of the doublespeak and doublethink than  Debretsion’s.

The crocodilian Debretsion is a consummate political operator who  is part of the all controlling T-TPLF state-within-the-state. He has held  various positions in the T-TPLF government. He is reputed to be the current Minister of Communication and Information Technology (more appropriately Chief  Disinformation Officer) and one of the three T-TPLF deputy prime ministers. He is also reputed to be the Board Chair of  “Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation” and the former Director General of the “Ethiopian Information and Communication Development Agency” (EICTDA), an organization presumably established  to “build a state-of-the-art broadband network that supports academic and research networking, improving the incentives for academic institutions and the private sector to promote ICT research and development and addressing.” Pursuant to T-TPLF Proclamation 691/2010, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is an amalgamation of  EICTDA, the “Ethiopian Telecommunications Agency” (ETA) and the “communications sector” of the T-TPLF Ministry of Transport and Communications.

CDO Debretsion is reputed to be the mastermind who introduced the use of spyware (“FinSpy) purchased from the Italian cybersecurity firm The Hacking Team to conduct surveillance on  T-TPLF opponents in the Ethiopian Diaspora. In July 2014, an amended  complaint was filed in U.S. federal court against the “Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia” alleging violations of U.S. wiretapping laws in the use of FinSpy.  The matter is presently in appellate litigation and likely to reach the United States Supreme Court in the next couple of years.

According to one report, CDO Debretsion was one of the individuals who set up “Dimtsi Woyane”,  a T-TPLF radio station in the bush. He is listed as having received a doctoral degree from an online university in Minneapolis, MN called Capella in 2011. His  dissertation entitled “Exploring the perception of users of community ICT centers on the effectiveness of ICT on poverty in Ethiopia” presumably examines, “information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a development tool.” Interestingly, he seems convinced that his theory of perception in poverty works the same way in propaganda and disinformation campaigns.

CDO Debretsion is an Orwellian character in much the same way as the late Thugmaster Meles Zenawi (TMZ). Like TMZ, the CDO likes to play smoke and mirrors games with the Ethiopian people and the loaners, donors and international poverty pimps.

Like Big Brother TMZ, CDO Debretsion believes the he and his T-TPLF gang live in a world of truth and reality and everyone else in Ethiopia lives  in a dreamy and foggy world of perception, imagination and illusion.

In the Orwellian Planet T-TPLF,  “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Dictatorship is democracy. Ethnic federalism is ethnic equality. Ethnic supremacy is a conspiracy. T-TPLF plutocracy is an isocracy (where all people have equal political power). ”

CDO Debretsion wants to convince the Ethiopian people that their eyes deceive them, their ears lie to them and they have a malfunctioning brain to boot.

I have been writing about the disinformation politics on Planet T-TPLF for a long time.

Back in 2009, Meles explained that winning all but three of the 3.6 million seats in local elections the preceding year was supremely democratic and claimed that “democracy is about process, it’s not about outcome… If the process is clean and you get zero, tough luck.’”

Today, CDO Debretsion says, “Ethnic federalism is equality. T-TPLF supremacy is nothing but a conspiracy. To say Tigreans are supreme (everywhere), that is not the reality. That is a zero. Zero.”

It is quite interesting that the CDO and TMZ have a thing about “zero”.

They love “zero”, especially playing “zero sum election games” (where they always win everything and everybody loses everything). They have been playing and winning one zero sum game after another for the past 25 years.

Let me make it plain. Who won 100 percent of the seats in the T-TPLF parliament in May 2015? That’s what a zero sum game is!

CDO  Debretsion says today, as did TMZ regarding the local election of 2008, that Ethiopians have got it all wrong about the T-TPLF.

TMZ said Ethiopians have got it wrong about democracy. They have got it wrong about elections, the rule of law, good governance and federalism.

CDO Debretsion today says Ethiopia have got it all wrong about T-TPLF’s democracy, federalism, “Tigrean supremacy”, development, good governance and democracy.

The CDO says Ethiopians need to wake up from their slumber in La La land and smell the roses, or is it the coffee?

TMZ told the Ethiopian people in 2009 that elections are “about process, not outcome”, namely a duly constituted constitutional government.

For TMZ and the CDO, it is all about perception and it is done with smoke and mirrors. It is about window dressing, going through the motions and putting on a good show.

The result of doublethink and doublespeak on Planet T-TPLF is: “War is peace, freedom is slavery;  ignorance is strength; dictatorship is democracy; poverty is prosperity; famine is feast; government wrongs are human rights; rigged and stolen elections are peoples’ choices; terrorizing the population is enrapturing them; and a cascade of lies is a torrent of truth.”

In T-TPLF doublethink and doublespeak, elections are about process. Due process is about the arbitrary process of depriving citizens of life, liberty and property.  Governance is not about accountability and transparency; it is about the exquisite process of clinging to power like blood-sucking ticks on a cow. A constitution is not about the rule of law; it is about rule by an outlaw. Federalism is not about a clear division of constitutional power but creating a fictitious process called “ethnic federalism” for the purpose of creating deep ethnic, cultural, linguistic and regional cleavages to facilitate dictatorial rule.

Double speak and double think as  disinformation techniques

In Nineteen Eighty Four, Orwell wrote :

[Doublethink is] the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.

CDO Debretsion and his T-TPLF gangsters have jailed  all independent journalists and shuttered the independent press which dares to criticize them. Now he complains about the media doing a poor job of informing the people about T-TPLF’s true accomplishments. If he is complaining about T-TPLF media doing a poor job, he is barking up the wrong tree. No Ethiopia (except perhaps T-TPLF lackeys) pay any attention to T-TPLF media. The people of Ethiopia are sick and tired of being sick and tired of T-TPLF lies, damned lies and statislies!

CDO Debretsion is not saying anything new. His predecessor “comical” Berket Simon used to complain time and again about the fact that nobody watches T-TPLF  TV or other media.

The people of Ethiopia are glued to ESAT. The people of Ethiopia tune to ESAT radio.  ESAT is the independent media forum for the Ethiopian people. I call on all Ethiopians to support ESAT financially and otherwise.

CDO Debretison says the problem in Gonder and the other places where “disturbances” have flared up is rooted in the corruption, abuse of power and maladministration of the kilil (Bantustan) officials. It has nothing to do with the T-TPLF.

The fact of the matter is that the T-TPLF runs an internal colonialism in the kilils (Bantustans) in much the same way as the British colonial masters and the white minority apartheid regime in South Africa. The T-TPLF created “sole native authorities” in the kilils  with full allegiance to the T-TPLF. The T-TPLF installs its own compradors, coopt local leaders and give them the illusion of autonomy and self-governance while maintaining  tight control over the kilil governments. The kilil officials do not even go to the outhouse without T-TPLF permission, let alone run their own government. Yet CDO Debretsion wants to absolve the T-TPLF from any responsibility by throwing the local kilil officials under the bus.

CDO Debretsion denies that the T-TPLF has little or no control to critical and essential political and social institutions.

Let me put it another way: Who won the May 2016 parliamentary election by 100 percent?  Who has a chokehold on the economy? Who has total control over the military?  Who has complete control over the civil service? Who totally controls the security services and the judicial process? Who totally controls all the loans and aid given by the loaners, donors and international poverty pimps?

If there is any question about these questions, we can certainly lay out the data and debate them at any time.

Most amazing admission by CDO Debretsion

For ten years, I have argued and provided evidence that the T-TPLF’s ethnic federalism system and its kilil governments are bogus and represent nothing more than a kinder and gentler version of South Africa’s homeland (Bantustan) system.

Now there is conclusive proof from Debretsion’s mouth that the T-TPLF killil (ethnic federalism) system is the exact duplicate of apartheid’s Bantustan or homeland system.

This past April I wrote a commentary entitled “The Bantustanization (Kililistanization) of Ethiopia” and demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that the political system created and maintained by the  T-TPLF in Ethiopia is a slightly kinder and gentler form  of the racial apartheid system practiced by the white minority regime in South Africa before the establishment of black majority rule in 1994.

CDO Debretsion in his interview said:

In Amhara kilil, Tigreans cannot be administrators. In Gambella, the administrator cannot be Tigrean. This (ethnic federalism arrangement) does not give others a chance to be supreme. Those of same ethnicity administer themselves.  If you say (Tigreans) are supreme (bosses) here and there, it is baseless.

That was precisely the case in apartheid Bantustan homelands!

Only Zulus could run and hold office in the KwaZulu homeland.

Only the Xhosa people could run and hold office in the Ciskei and Transkei homelands.

Only the Tswana people could run and hold office in the Bophuthatswana homeland.

Only the Pedi and Northern Ndebele people could run and hold office in the Lebowa homeland.

Only the Vendas could run and hold office in the Venda homeland.

Only the Shangaan and Tsonga people could run and hold office in the Gazankulu homeland.

Only the Basothos could run and hold office in the Qwa Qwa homeland.

But who held the ultimate power in South Africa?  The apartheid white minority regime.

How independent were the independent homelands in South Africa?

Only to the extent the T-TPLF says they are independent.

How independent are Ethiopia’s 9 Bantustans in Ethiopia? Only to the extent the T-TPLF says they are independent.

In a true federalism, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, ideology, etc. have no relevance in the exercise of political rights.

For instance, Hillary Clinton spent a good part of her professional life in Arkansas before she became a U.S. senator from New York. Mitt Romney was born in Michigan, attended college in Utah and became Governor of Massachusetts. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, attended college in California, New York and Massachsetts and became a U.S. Senator from Illinois.

I thank CDO Debretsion for providing irrefutable evidence that the T-TPLF ethnic federalism system is the latest and greatest version of South Africa’s apartheid regime.

The Force is with the Ethiopian people: T-TPLF resistance is futile

The massive and spreading uprising and resistance to T-TPLF rule is unstoppable by massacres, disinformation or any other means.

In the lyrics of Andy Williams, “It’s impossible, tell the sun to leave the sky/ It’s impossible, ask a baby not to cry/ It is impossible to stop the ocean from rushing to the shore/

So it is just impossible, impossible, impossible to stop the Ethiopian people from securing their human rights and establishing one democratic nation under the rule of law, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It is just impossible to stop the Ethiopia people!!!

The reason is simple.

There is a national political awakening occurring in Ethiopia occurring today in the same way  Zbigniew Brzezinski talked about a “global awakening” occurring in 2008.  Brzezinski argued:

For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive… The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination… The worldwide yearning for human dignity is the central challenge inherent in the phenomenon of global political awakening… That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing… The nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that can be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious passions. These energies transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well as to the existing global hierarchy…

The youth of the Third World are particularly restless and resentful. The demographic revolution they embody is thus a political time-bomb, as well… Their potential revolutionary spearhead is likely to emerge from among the scores of millions of students concentrated in the often intellectually dubious “tertiary level” educational institutions of developing countries….

[The] major world powers, new and old, also face a novel reality: while the lethality of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people.

The lessons for the T-TPLF are simple:

The young people of Ethiopia who constitute 70 percent of the population are leading the uprising and revolution, not the opposition political parties, leaders and the rest.

The young people of Ethiopia are demanding human dignity and human rights. That is non-negotiable.

The young people of Ethiopia are restless and resentful. They can’t take it anymore. They can’t be bought or sold.

The young people of Ethiopia are sick and tired of being sick and tired of living as second class citizens under T-TPLF tyranny.

The young people of Ethiopia are far more radicalized than anything the T-TPLF leaders can think of in their wildest imagination.

It is infinitely easier for the T-TPLF to kill one million Ethiopians than to control one million Ethiopians.

The lethality of the military might of the T-TPLF  is greater than ever, but in the face of Ethiopia’s Youth Power it is like a feather in a tornadic storm.

Such is the fate of the T-TPLF.

The T-TPLF will be vacuumed and deposited in the dustbin of history.

There is an immutable iron law of history the T-TPLF should know.

Mahatma Gandhi articulated that law:

There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.

Interview with Dr Bedilu Wakjira – SBS Amharic

Video: Full Debates” Clinton & Trump-First Presidential Debate 2016 – Hofstra University NY

Vision Ethiopia, an independent network of Ethiopian scholars and professionals, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT) is pleased to make the 2nd and final call for papers for a conference which will be held on October 22 & 23, 2016 in Washington D.C. at the Georgetown Marriot Hotel. Abstracts and preferably the entire papers must be sent tovisionethiopia2016@gmail.com on or before Friday, September 30, 2016.

The recent developments in the country makes it imperative for all concerned citizens and the world at large to recognize that the crisis is getting deeper and deeper, and TPLF/EPRDF’s response is only making matters go from bad to worse. Tensions are dangerously high and the TPLF/EPRDF is gradually losing both control and legitimacy, more notably in the Amhara and Oromia regions where the vast majority of Ethiopians are located. New and local leadership is coming out from the resistance, apparently with inspirational and mature slogans. Protestors have symbolically begun removing the barriers, gimmicks and shackles of the TPLF/EPRDF. These developments need ensuring so that the predominantly peaceful resistance against the dictatorship does not gravitate into anarchy that target certain ethnic groups, and threatens the sovereignty and unity of the country. In sum, like most popular revolutions, the “Ethiopian Spring” is moving at its own pace and has brought new challenges and opportunities. The task of independent scholars and professionals, and leaders of civic, political and religious organizations is to find ways and means of easing the challenges of transition.

At its April 16, 2016 regular meeting, the board members of Vision Ethiopia made the second and final assessment of the March 26-27, 2016 conference, and reaffirmed that the theme of the forthcoming conference should be linked to the second conference and serve as forum for further development of the key challenges of transition. More than any time in the Ethiopia’s history, reversing the ongoing slaughter of citizens by the extremist wing of the TPLF, in particular, and ushering an end to government-led violence and heavy-handedness, in general, have become paramount. Drawing strategic roadmap for conflict resolution, and instruments for transition, national unity and democracy have become both necessary and timely. Participants of the second conference correctly defined that Ethiopia’s post conflict transition starts with the releasing of the country’s institutions from their captured status. The challenge is about accelerating the quest for freedom while reducing the cost, and installing a care-taker leadership team that can be trusted by the people. The primary mission of the care-taker leadership team should be to maintain law and order, rebuild social harmony, prepare the country for truth and national reconciliation and for an unfettered free and fair election as quickly as possible. Useful ideas of transition are welcome from all corners, including from TPLF/EPRDF supporters.

Members of Vision Ethiopia believe that drawing a strategic roadmap is a multi-dimensional process, particularly for a country immersed with many cleavages, be they political, economic, ethnic or geopolitical. Vision Ethiopia believes addressing the challenges and mending the cleavages would require active participation from and contribution by all concerned, regardless of their political, religious or ethnic affiliations. Hence, consistent with its mission, Vision Ethiopia is looking for well thought out contributions from various segments of the Ethiopian society, including but not limited to scholars, professionals, and civic and political organizations. We particularly invite historians, sociologists, political scientists, public administration and constitutional experts, defense and security analysts, conflict resolution experts and mediators, and experts in transition and peace keeping; asking them to join their energies so that the synergies may contribute towards conflict resolution and successful transition to a democratically elected government of national unity as quickly as possible. Authors are required to prepare documents that are publicly presentable and ready to disseminate.

We urge authors and presenters to avoid technical jargons, anecdotal evidence and utopianism, but instead use simple and understandable languages, and make their themes multi-cultural. Accepted abstracts and papers, program details and presentation guidelines will be announced in early October. Authors must be available at the conference venue to make their presentation. All presentations will be recorded,exclusively by ESAT, and transmitted to viewers around the world.

Abune Abraham Speech at Meskel Celebration in Bahr Dar, Ethiopia

Posted by Daljir / September 27, 2016

The Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA) is continuing its offensive against Ethiopian regime army and its associated militia. This offensive has intensified since the regimes army’s massacres of innocent civilians in other parts of Ethiopia as they had done previously in ogaden since 2007. Since November 2015, ONLA has been waylaying and putting pressure on the killing forces of the regime.

Latest news from the Ogaden reports that there has been clashes between Ogaden National Liberation Army and the Ethiopian regime’s army in the Qorahay and Shabelle regions of the Ogaden. The ONLA has killed 13 Soldiers and wounded 19 others.

On the 21/09/2016 in Xamaro (Nogob), ONLF attacked the regime’s army convoy heading towards Oromo areas killing 3 soldiers and injured another 4.

On the 23/09/2016, in Goomar (Qorahay), ONLF waylaid a convoy killing 6 soldiers and injuring 8 others.

On the 23/09/2016 heavy fighting took place in Shiniile (Shabelle), and the ONLF killed 4 soldiers and injured another 7.

Latest reports from the Ogaden say that similar attacks by ONLF freedom fighters, which usually occur when Ethiopian regime’s soldiers venture into rural localities and villages to massacre civilians, are continuing.

Ogaden News Agency

Alemneh Wasie News – Abune Abraham Speech at Meskel Celebration

ESAT Daily News DC Tue 27 September 2016

There seems to be a consensus by all concerned that Ethiopia is at cross roads. Even TPLF/EPRDF is speaking about the need to make a critical choice. Most of us are curious to see the tour and detour the ruling party is about to take. What is sad is, the televised lectures of Ato Abay, and Ato Seyoum have only increased our pessimism about the most talked about Renewal. The Old Guards’ perception of reality, about the present political and economic problem in Ethiopia, is quite contrary to the events on the ground. They don’t seem to realize that the very appearance of the two TPLF veterans projecting power, undermining the image of the incumbent Prime Minister Hailemariam, is a problem by itself.

Going further, when most Ethiopians are angry about the real massacre that took place in Amhara and Oromia regions, Ato Abay and Ato Seyoum chose to dwell on a massacre that did not occur, by making a cunning and imaginary prediction of a genocide against our Tigryean brothers and sisters. The demonstrators were shouting about ending hegemony of TPLF, but the authorities were accusing the protest as an attack on the constitutional order. The protesters on the streets were shouting about Wolkait, but the Old Guards were seen belittling the youth by talking about its unemployment problems. The riots were seen demanding for a regime change to save the country from disaster, whereas the authorities were talking about renewal of the party for growth and transformation.

Despite the political lingo and gyrations, the bottom line should be about a detour from ethnic tension and not its escalation. Whatever the outcome of the ruling party’s self-evaluation of the country’s problems, it is necessary that we have a good inventory of what a minimum renewal should be about. The root causes of the present ethnic tension in Ethiopia are Legality of Secession , the Divisive Ethnic Parties and TPLF’s lack of willingness to divest its grip of political power & to share it with its pariah partners ANDM (Amhara), OPDO (Oromo), SEPDM (South).The following is a brief commentary on the three specific issues. Any renewal effort that does not resolve the trio challenges fails to address the basic concerns of all Ethiopians, who consider peaceful power transfer as the optimal solution.

First: Secession and the Constitution. Whether we like it or not, the question of secession is the multi trillion dollar question presented before all Ethiopians today. TPLF/EPRDF considers inclusion of secession in the constitution as the hallmark of its achievement; it strongly considers right to secede as the essence of the constitution to guarantee protection of Nations and Nationalities from ethnic oppression. There is an inherent belief that the only recourse of an ethnicity, in the face of ethnic oppression, is to run away from the Federation by declaring independence.

However, taking secession as a solution comes from a serious lack of confidence on the collective power of all Ethiopians to identify what is good for their common destiny, and collectively fight any form of oppression, be it ethnic or individual in nature. Agreed or not, it was Walelign, an Amhara, who made the first remark regarding ethnic oppression in Ethiopia. The Constitution should emphasize our unity in diversity; it has to empower citizens so that they may stand up together and fight, whenever their right is infringed, than encourage a coward act of fleeing the country, opting for secession.

The innate assumption of the constitution is that there is a chicken egg relationship between a region and its inhabitants. Every ethnicity is assumed to have laid the region as an egg or vice versa. Hence an ethnic group is deemed to have exclusive right on the region it inhabits, by disregarding the stake of other Ethiopians in that region. This is completely illogical and hence it is wrong! If we take the recent Ethio-Eritrean border conflict as an example, all Ethiopians paid sacrifice defending a frontier we all claim to be in Tigray and not in Eritrea. So, theoretically, how fair will that be to argue only the people of Tigray have a say on secession of the region from Ethiopia? Given our rich history and diversity, it is correct to accept the right of ethnicities for self-administration, but not necessarily the right to secede.

In one of my articles published in March 2016 entitled ‘Ethiopia’s Ethnic Parties, Hate for Oppressors but not the Oppression’, I quoted a Statement of Objects and Reasons in the 42^nd amendment of the Indian constitution that sent a clear and resonating message about why it was necessary for India to outlaw cessation declaring cessation to be anti-national and hence illegal. Following was a relevant excerpt:

“A Constitution to be living must be growing. If the Impediments to the growth of the Constitution are not removed, the Constitution will suffer a virtual atrophy. The question of amending the Constitution for removing the difficulties which have arisen in achieving the objective of socio-economic revolution, which would end poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity, has been engaging the active attention of Government and Public for some Years Now…”

So, would the so called ‘Comprehensive Renewal’ of TPLF/EPRDF have a prospect of accompanying such a serious change, as was seen during the 42^nd amendment of the Indian Constitution? A similar bold move can save Ethiopia from the ever growing ethnic tension. It can clear the serious doubt most Ethiopians have about the real motive for inserting such a dangerous phrase in the constitution, which most consider as a sugar coated time bomb. Ethiopia has not still seen democracy, and the up to secession clause has not added any real value to Ethiopians. However, its existence has, in fact, intensified and solidified the mistrust and suspicion among us.

Second: Ethnic Political Parties. In my other articles dated February 2016, ‘Demystifying: Ethnic Politics and Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia’, I have tried to show that it is possible to have the federalism without its malice, ethnic politics. Ethnic parties stand for an ethnic group at the exclusion of others, based on differences that emanate from the act of God. I have shown that there is a nexus between ethnic parties and the phrase  …”Including the right to secession”. If secession is outlawed, ethnic parties would lose the prime justification for their existence, their leadership role, when the need for secession arises.

It is not uncommon to see people who mistake an opposition to secession as opposition to federalism. The ruling party erroneously equates anti-secession as ethnic chauvinism. This comes from inability to grasp the essence of the problems that befell our country. At this historic juncture, no politician of a sound mind could dare to deny Oromos of Oromia. However, Oromos may choose to attain efficiency and overcome the Addis Ababa dilemma by willfully dividing Oromia in to North/South or East/West with two respective flourishing cities, comparable to that of Bahirdar or Mekele, for the forty million Ethiopians. This could be a natural outgrowth of true democracy. The problem does not lie in the zoning of regions or the use of languages other than Amharic; it is the ethnic parties that need a serious reorientation to gather members around ideologies and public policies than merely on ethnicity.

If we look at the experience of the US, it accommodates all races of the planet. But, it will be awkward and funny, even to imagine a US with German American Liberation Front, Hawaiian Democratic Movement, or African American Liberation Front. Why would they? After all what everybody needs, as a citizen, is Democracy and Freedom that renders equal opportunity in Education, Health, Jobs, Investment etc. The needs of an African American and a German American does not require an ethnic political party, but the constitution and the rule of law. The various races are members of ideology based political parties like Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or the Green Party. In India Congress Party and Janata Dal Parties can also be a good example for reference.

Likewise, why are we still struggling to recognize that the individual need of an Oromo, an Amhara, a Somali or a Tigre does not require membership in ethnic based political parties? The right of a minority like an Oromo who resides in Tigray, working languages of Governments and their boundaries should be articulated in the constitution. Any violation of such rights should be left to the judicial body, and not to ethnic parties that thrive only through conflicts. We need to reorient the system towards language competence than a primordial ethnicity. If a Somali from Ethiopia is able to be a Member of Parliament in Holland or in Portugal, why can’t we improve the constitution so that it enables an ethnic Oromo person run for a political office in Tigray or a Somali in the Oromia etc., if elected democratically?

Third: True EPRDF: Today, any change initiated by the ruling party towards democracy is bound to be a two-step progressive process. The second step cannot occur without walking the first. The first step is about TPLF’s commitment to let go of its control over EPRDF allowing TPLF/EPRDF to truly become EPRDF. It is futile to expect democracy from undemocratic TPLF/EPRDF. Equality within EPRDF should be accompanied by serious of measures by TPLF to divest its control over the security apparatus of the country through a genuine ethnic diversification, separation of the Army from politics and a genuine commitment to rule of law. Although we are all aware of the general truth that power is taken and not given, it is not uncommon to see a peaceful transfer of power as in Poland or South Africa. So, the first step towards democracy is that TPLF should be willing to truly relinquish power, and share it equally with the members of its coalition.

When all members of the ruling party have equal power and the freedom, to express descent, there could be a light across the tunnel for the second step, sharing power with the opposition. Any renewal effort by ruling party without taking the first step, will be a nasty bed time story for the opposition. A democratic EPRDF that is based in rule of law than the dictatorship of TPLF may have the capacity to admit its mistakes, to free political prisoners, to free journalists, to listen to criticisms, to design  appropriate policies, to resolve conflicts amicably, to have a genuine dialogue with the opposition or to allow a free and fair election. This is what I call the second and the last step of peaceful power transfer.

In summary, given the growing ethnic tension and mistrust jeopardizing the peaceful coexistence of Ethiopians, it is crucial that a serious consideration is given to understand the pillars of the ethnic tension. And these are acceptance of a dispensable Ethiopia with legalized secession, the divisive role of ethnic political parties and absence of Democracy. TPLF/EPRDF has been talking about a fledgling Democracy for twenty five years without any evidence that a boy or a girl called Democracy is in fact born. We all know that what is not born cannot grow! Democracy is said to be born only when there are at least two democratic political parties that have a fifty-fifty chance of winning an election. Simply put, the renewal should be about removing the impediment to growth of the constitution from virtual atrophy by outlawing secession and ethnic political parties, peaceful transfer of power by TPLF to EPRDF and finally a peaceful transfer of power to opposition parties, through a free and fair election. Given the history of the ruling party, considering any higher or faster route would be indulgence in shear fantasy.

Melaku Woldeselassie

Atlanta

 

ESAT Radio 30min Sep 28 2016

By Desta Heliso

There are some people who think that perfect peace, justice, freedom and democracy will usher in Ethiopia if EPRDF is toppled through violence. I have heard some confident assertions along this line, but I am not sure such confidence corresponds to the complex reality on the ground. On the one hand, our country has multiple problems such as increasingly endemic corruption, maladministration, curtailed freedom of expression, tightly controlled media, lack of free and fair elections, non-EPRDF members being regarded as second-class citizens, relative absence of level-playing field in politics and business, and politically driven educational system. On the other hand, over the last decade or so, the country has seen positive things that we would only have dreamed of years ago. Freedom of religion, increased number of universities, infrastructural development (roads, railways and bridges), growing manufacturing industry, growing hotel and tourism sector, banking industry, mega dams such as Gilgel Gibe and Great Renaissance Dam (GRD), aviation industry, growth of the middle class, higher life expectancy and relative economic growth are some of the examples. All these signs of progress have their own particular flaws and failings, but they have enabled many Ethiopians to cope and hope. And if these changes could be achieved in the face of all the deficiencies of systems of administration coupled with human frailties, how much more could be achieved if we managed to resolve even some of the above mentioned problems? We are divided over the means through which these problems can be addressed.

Many of us, including myself, believe that Ethiopia will achieve a better future characterised by better freedom, justice, democracy, equal opportunity and development can only if we safeguard the imperfect peace and stability and limited freedoms and developments we currently have. The terms ‘safeguard’ should not be understood in terms of maintaining the status quo in its entirety, but rather it should be understood in terms of working patiently within the status quo in order to build on that which is good and change that which is bad. There is no question that any serious instability in our country would be a hindrance for this. It could also potentially jeopardise the integrity of the country we love so very much and plunge the entire region into absolute chaos. This is not an apocalyptic prophecy based on mere imagination. This is a genuine view based on reality and held by a very large number of people up and down the country. Many reasons or justifications could be enumerated but let me mention only a few.

First, an attempt to change the current system through public unrest and violence could stir up historical antagonisms. Human history is never tidy and Ethiopia is not an exception. Over the last millennium and half, political power in Ethiopia has been shifting from one region to another, the process of which was often bloody. That inevitably has left a scar (to a lesser or greater degree) in the psyche of each region, hence creating what I call a historical volcano. The last theocratic regime kept this historical volcano from constantly erupting by employing shrewd diplomacy and politically arranged marital structures. The military-communist regime kept it under control by brute force and an insidious focus on the ‘Mother Land’. The EPRDF has tried to bring the threat posed by this historical volcano to an end by introducing political administrative structures along ethnic lines (with some exceptions). Despite some positive results, this has not worked as well as expected. Indeed, the philosophy underlying EPRDF’s political and administrative system may need to be rethought. But any attempt to remove the current regime by force could potentially lead to dangerous disintegration of the country. Think, for example, of Somali, Gambela, Afar and Oromia regions, which have their own governments. There are also rebel groups in relation to each of these regions: Oromo Liberation Front, Afar Liberation Front, Gambela People’s Liberation Movement, Ogaden National Liberation Front. Imagine what could happen in these regions if the current imperfect administrative arrangements are violently dismantled. Imagine what could happen to our country if the current toxic political rhetoric that targets a certain people group bears fruit. One might say that setting up an all-inclusive transitional government in the event of removing the EPRDF government by force will prevent this from happening.

However, second, the last 25 years have shown us that so long as ideological values are driven by ethnically orientated and regionally framed programmes, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a common agenda. This is precisely why opposition parties have struggled to succeed. Let alone at the national level, it is sometimes difficult to bring people around a common purpose and goal in an ethnically homogenous region with strong clan-structures. One might say that if EPRDF could achieve commonality of purpose and political programme, anyone can achieve it. I would say that EPRDF has not achieved it. The dream of unity-in-diversity still remains a dream. The desire in the 1990s was to achieve stronger national consciousness through affirming (rather than denying) ethnic identity. But at the moment, our sense of diversity does not match our sense of unity. The journey towards finding a healthy, inclusive and affirmative sense of identity is not yet achieved. This is not an easy journey, of course. Countries like England, Scotland and Wales still struggle with finding a balanced sense of identity. Our situation is even much more delicate and volatile than theirs. Any violent attempt to achieve what they have achieved over centuries could take us back to where they were 400 years ago. Violence does not always breed peace; violence often breeds violence.

Third, internal conflicts within Ethiopia will make the security situation in the country extremely vulnerable. External forces such as the current Eritrean government, Al-Shabbab in Somalia, Islamic State, rogue and radical military and religious elements in Egypt and Sudan could easily capitalise on internal instabilities in Ethiopia. This could result in an attempt to spread religious extremism, which could lead to religious conflicts. It could also result in the destruction of some of the projects such as GRD, for which the people of Ethiopia have paid a huge price. Furthermore, instability in Ethiopia could worsen conflicts in neighbouring states such as South Sudan and Somalia (both of which benefit from Ethiopian military support), potentially destabilise Kenya, strengthen the brutal regime in Eritrea, and terminally endanger the country’s territorial integrity.

Fourth, the Ethiopian army is made up of diverse people groups. While protecting and defending the security of our country with great pride and sense of nationalism, military personnel have their own ethnic identity, of which they are also proud. If the current military structure is dismantled, God forbid, there is a real possibility of ethnically based militia groups propping up here and there. Comrades could become enemies and turn their guns against each other to protect or expand newly created territories. This will take us back to the situation our country was in centuries ago. The level of loss of life and destruction of properties in all this could be unimaginable as well. We don’t want this to happen. Nor do we want the creation of Somalia-style territories with their own militias.

Finally, many poorest people in the countryside have benefited from various schemes such as, for example, the safety net scheme, which puts cash in their pockets and enables them to feed their families. There are also various agricultural, health and small-scale business initiatives, which have helped improve the lives of many of the poorest in our country. People dislike EPRDF’s party-centred approach that seeks to benefit party members more than others, and yet many believe that the schemes are useful in terms of creating jobs, reducing poverty, improving general health of the population and lessening mother-infant mortality. Violence could disrupt all these and take the country many steps backwards.

From all this, I would argue that the disadvantages of changing the current government through violent means far outweigh the advantages, if any. So I would plead, in the name of God, with all parties who are engaging in violent activities to stop and engage in peaceful political undertakings, difficult though that may be. I would equally plead with the ruling party and the government of Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn to fully appreciate that use of force alone would not solve our problems. No one, not even the government, possesses universal panacea for Ethiopia’s problems. National problems require collective effort in an open, inclusive and patient manner. No superficial effort with party political goals will bring lasting solutions. Indeed, any course of action, whether it be establishing the root causes of current civil unrests and coming up with solutions or determining the future direction of our nation, must include opposition groups and people of good will. A nation-wide process of peace building, forgiveness and reconciliation needs to be initiated. In this process, the role of prominent community elders and religious leaders should be central. National healing must be the goal of all efforts. And all of us – who believe in the survival of Ethiopia as a nation in all her wonders and beauties – ought to help each other to realise that we are all wounded beings and must see ourselves as wounded healers.

Desta Heliso (PhD)
The writer lives and work in Ethiopia but currently in London on academic sabbatical

Born in Mekelle, the Capital of the Tigray regional state in the north, GebruAsrat became one of the early members of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), Ethiopia’s all too powerful member of the governing coalition, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). But Gebru left EPRDF in early 2000 following a major split within TPLF in the wake of the 1998-2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Prior to that Gebru served as the president of the Tigray Regional State from 1991 – 2001 and was one of the top executive members of the TPLF’s politburo as well as the executive member of EPRDF. After leaving EPRDF, Gebru established the opposition Arena Tigray and became its chairman in 2007. Today Arena Tigray is one of the member parties of the larger opposition block, MEDREK.  In 2014, Gebru has published an acclaimed book: “LualawinetEna Democracy Be Ethiopia” (Sovereignty and Democracy in Ethiopia).  Addis Standard’s

KalkidanYibeltal interviewed Gebru on the current Ethiopian political affairs. Excerpts:   

Addis Standard – In your 2014 book “Democracy and Sovereignty in Ethiopia” you argued that TPLF’s culture of secrecy had helped its eventual triumph in overthrowing the militarist Derg and most of the party’s followers were indoctrinated with the propaganda of Stalinist determination. What’s the context of that culture, if you will, in light of the current situation in the TPLF-dominated-EPRDF led Ethiopia?

 GebruAsrat – TPLF was initially formed to pursue a political struggle. In order to meet that political goal through military means, it had established an army. This is one of its features. In its early days TPLF was a Marxist Leninist party. An army needs prudence [and] caution; secrets are not needed to be passed to the opposing group or to the enemy. But there is also fierce centralism which comes from the Marxist Leninist ideology.

These two factors [contributed to TPLF’s culture of secrecy] and helped it for the success of the armed struggle. But later on, after the armed struggle came to an end [with victory] TPLF denounced the Marxist Leninist ideology, and its militarist approach was seemingly replaced by a political program. But what TPLF did was to remove the flesh from its Stalinism structure, not the bone and the skeleton.  It kept the skeleton so that it would help it to rule the people of Ethiopia. It did so by using the fundamental principles of centralism; there is the rule of one party, which now they call the dominant party under the guise of revolution ary democracy.  The party kept its culture of secrecy and its centralism principle because they are convenient to rule [with an iron first].All the talks about democracy, justice, equality and the rule of law were eventually abandoned. Although it somehow shifted the gear to Capitalism during the early days of its rule the transition was not clear either. The party didn’t completely abandon the old Marxist Leninist ways; it selected what it needed to rule, to maintain its power and sustained them. Transparency was lost and a highly centralized one party dominated system was established. This secretive nature of the dominant TPLF and its refusal to be open to the public has impacted the democratization process of the country. More than that the features it has brought from the Marxist Leninist ideology like centralism, the concept of a dominant party and revolutionary democracy has eventually hampered the road to democracy and gave way to our reality today in which one party does whatever it wants.

 AS – There are people who argue that TPLF betrayed its initial noble goals, which were its foundations, after it assumed power. But judging from what you just said above (its culture of secrecy and its loyalty to an out-of-date ideology) one could say that the formation of TPLF was essentially flawed from the very beginning. And it seems that the problems we are witnessing today are the manifestations of those flaws. Am I correct?

GA – We have to clarify this in two ways: there are those who argue that TPLF’s noble goals could have only been attained through [the guiding principles of] Marxist Leninist ideology. I was one of those who believed in this. I used to fully believe that other ways of democratization were wrong; that it would not bring equality, liberty and justice. It was a mixture of belief, philosophy and ideology. So people who saw [the party’s last minute conversion to capitalism] felt they were betrayed. Many of the old guard (the old cadres), were carved in this way, so they clearly felt betrayed. On the other hand there were those even in that time who asked [if TPLF] shouldn’t have to be a democratic organization in which a marketplace of ideas were entertained. People who saw things from this perspective felt like the Marxist Leninist ideology, in its essence, could not have brought democracy. These were people who felt betrayed from the very beginning. At the end both of them have lost. There is no democracy; and there was no Marxist Leninist as it was envisioned in the beginning. Those ardent Marxist Leninist ideology supporters were betrayed because at the dawn of victory when the rebel soldiers entered into the capital the ideology was not even to be mentioned. And those who yearned for democracy were also betrayed because we ended up having a system of one dominant party rule.

AS – In chapter two of your book you explained the rocky relationship that often existed between TPLF and other armed groups that were operating in the country during the armed struggle. As someone who has been in the inner circles of the TPLF both during the armed struggle and afterwards, how do you characterize this nature of TPLF as a party vis a vis its relationship with the other sister parties within the governing coalition of EPRDF?

 GA – Yes I have written that TPLF often ended its relationships with other armed groups, which did not identify with it, by force and war. That was during the time of the armed struggle. Now, these four parties that make up the EPRDF are sister parties. More than that they say they have the same program and objective. But even in that case, there is something that must be known:  these parties are not unified and it is not clear why. If they do not have a program difference, if they have similar national visions, if they do not have a principle or ideology difference, as they claim, they should have been one national party [or] should have formed a unity. But this didn’t happen because there is this notion that EPRDF can keep the interests of each party, so it stayed this way for 25 years.

As it is known, of the four parties the one with the highest influence and the most veteran is TPLF. The amount of influence TPLF has, or we should rather say had, on other parties is not a minor one. This is not visible during eventless and peaceful times. But when there is a problem, things start to surface. For example in 2000, when EPRDF as a governing coalition was hit by a serious crisis, the value of these parties began to be measured by their loyalties to the late MelesZenawi, or TPLF. The leaders of some of these parties have even found themselves in dangerous positions.  Senior party members who have a sense of independence were kicked out and were replaced by others. This is to say that during the times of peace, the parties appear to be equal. Gradually this led the umbrella party to become what we can call a one man tyranny. As a result every party or member, who is not loyal, has faced difficulties.

But now there appear to be changes following the death of MelesZenawi, which had a very big tactical implication to EPRDF. The late Meles was a leader who managed to control and rule all the parties as well as the army. After his death all the parties within EPRDF, or rather senior leaders within those parties, have nominated him/herself to be the next Meles, showing visible signs of an increasing distance between the four parties.

AS  – In the past intra-party or intra-region conflicts which are common in federal states like Ethiopia were effectively managed by TPLF/EPDRF. This was attributed to the absence of the role of opposition parties in any of the regions. Since EPRDF governs all the regions, it has found it to be easier to manage potential intra-party or intra-region conflicts. But recent regional squabbles, for example between the Amhara and Tigray regions, seem to be on the rise. These are not simply expressions of discontent by the people of the two regions.  They are rather conflicts between the two parties governing the two regions. What is at the bottom of this? These are two parties under the same umbrella. What does this say about the two parties which are seemingly loyal to the principles of the mother party EPRDF?

GA – We can call these parties one and at the same time four. They are one because they have a common program and a national vision. On the other hand they are parties formed to maintain the interests of their individual regional interests. So this problem, even if it was not as accentuated as now, was seen before, especially in border issues. There were problems about border demarcation between Tigray and Amhara in two particular places; one in Wolkait, specifically in the place called Dansha; the second around Agaw, in the area called Abergede. There were conflicts. At the end of the day what are these parties loyal to? Their own regions or the country in general? It is not clear. Even if we see them as members of one party, they are also four different entities. So they give precedence   for their respective regions. This in itself creates conflicts; here it is expressed in the form of border conflict. It might as well be expressed in a different form. In benefits, in budget, for instance.So it can stem from the regional interest each party is trying to pursue. But essentially the Wolkait situation can be resolved by following the dictates of the Constitution. The same with Addis Abeba and Oromia. They can be solved following the Constitution. But the questions raised by the public go beyond that. They are questions of basic rights and liberties. They are questions of justice. They are questions of governorship. But in EPRDF’s Ethiopia whenever there is a problem, there is a tendency to externalize the sources. They point fingers at others. They are even saying that the public movement we are seeing now is the doing of the Eritrean government, the doings of our enemies from abroad. I think it is pure insanity to assume that millions are bought by the enemy; it is insane to assume that the Eritrean government has the power, in our country, to mobilize all these people. This externalization is also visible in other ways; whenever there is a problem in Oromia, the others see it as the fault line of OPDO. Whenever there is a problem in Amhara, the others point their fingers at ANDM and so on. They do not see it as a national problem. So when big problems, like we are witnessing now, occur, they tend to pull each other. We have seen it in 2000. It was triggered by the Eritrean question and how sovereignty was handled. There are problems within one party, let alone a front of four parties that are not unified.

AS – Ethiopia is experiencing frequent protests almost in every corner. With that in mind some prominent veterans say TPLF/EPRDF is at a crossroads and they are calling for a reform from within. What is your take on that? Do you agree that their prescription of reform within the TPLF/EPRDF is what a better Ethiopia needs now?

In my view TPLF was at the crossroads for a long time now. It’s been a long time but now it is very clear. It is failing to even manage the situation in its own backyard. There are demonstrations, for example the one in Embasenet. There is public discontent. There are questions of absence of good governance and democracy, and the presence of rampant corruption. These problems, through time, have penetrated into the party itself. Last year in August and September when the TPLF held its convention, the questions were raised from within the party. Party members were saying that the party was not in the right track. They criticized TPLF for being so weak that it can’t even manage its own region properly let alone impact the wider country. These questions are still alive.  Now the situation is very critical. For an entire year, there have been public gatherings, public meetings by members of civil servants and the society at large. But as [Albert] Einstein said it well it’s insanity to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.  They have tried it for more than twenty years without a change. And now we have reached at a tipping point. This problem cannot be solved in a similar way unless there is a fundamental change in the country. So these people, my older comrades, appear to be concerned by this reality. I agree with the analyses they give about the presence of a critical situation in the country.  I see their initiation to do this as a much needed positive move. However, when we come to solutions they subscribed, I must say that, they have said what I have said personally and as a member of Arena Tigray Party, which is also a member of the larger Medrek. We, as a party, have long put what we saw as the solutions to the problems in Ethiopia on several occasions. Fundamental democratic change is needed, much different from what EPRDF is following right now. If there is no democratization in Ethiopia, the problems will keep on escalating and they will put the country in a very dangerous situation. So I agree with some of what they had to say personally. But there are also suggestions that revolutionary democracy is still right. I disagree with that. It is not right. It hasn’t been right. It never worked. It cannot be a means to cultivate democracy. In fact it chokes it to death. And those commentators are saying that they agree with the principles of the developmental state. This is a scheme to put the entire economy in the hands of the state; to put the land, the budget, the country’s wealth in the hands of the state to oppress the others more easily. So I don’t agree. I do not have any problem with the government putting its hand in the economy. But like the way it is now, when the government controls everything, it becomes wrong. But the main thing is they have seen it that the country is in a critical state. And there are some solutions they suggested, like mass public discussions. But I don’t have the naiveté to believe that EPRDF is capable of reforming itself. I don’t believe that. To be fair, these are not the only solutions they suggested. They also recommended the party to have a dialogue with other opposition parties and to open the political space, which I agree with. If EPRDF reforms itself it might be useful for it. However I, as an opposition, and as someone who is a member of a party representing an alternative way,  I say, as long as democracy is not practiced in its entirety, I don’t see a way out of this quagmire for Ethiopia. There will not be justice. A fundamental change is what is needed; not a mending reform.

AS – But do you believe TPLF/EPRDF is capable of reforming itself? The language of reform has been applied for over 15 years. It’s been that long since the late MelesZenawi himself admitted EPRDF was ‘rotten’ inside out. Can TPLF/EPRDF reform itself or is the fear that if it does it might bring in its own demise takes precedence? Which one do you believe in: is it the unwillingness or the incapacity to reform that’s holding it back?

In my view reform can come in two ways; from the forces within or from the outside public. In TPLF/EPRDF when they talk about reform, it is all about keeping the status quo because on many of the important questions the party falters.  They believe any change must happen over the graves of the party. They say they are ready to debate but they are not open for debate because they are afraid; they work from the assumption that any change on the status quo will be dangerous for them.  They tried it after the split in 2000 and during elections in 2005, but the results became overwhelming. So they used all means to close until they ended up taking a 100 per cent of the parliamentary seats. They have managed to have eight million members in an attempt to control every village. The recent statement by Prime Minister HailemariamDesalegn can be read in this light. For over a year, he has been saying they have problems of all sorts. But recently he resorted to force as a means to relinquish these pubic demands. All he said was they have the military power and they can control the situation forcefully.  He didn’t solicit political legitimacy. He didn’t see democratization as a solution, unless nominally. So far the way TPLF/EPRDF follows is guided by the principle that it controls the army, the police and the intelligence to rule the country with an iron fist. So the pressures witnessed from within are not making TPLF/EPRDF to reform. Now we have to wait and see how the public demands are pressurizing them into having a reform.

AS – Perhaps getting into the bottom of the party’s way of governing the county may help us understand on whether or not applying the language of reform could yield any result. You have, for instance, served as the president of the Tigray Regional state for about ten years. And one of the long standing problems of TPLF/EPRDF is its failure to implement the federal system as stipulated in the constitution. You had a chance to see how exactly that was played out during your presidency. How do you evaluate, for example, the fault lines in the federal-regional nexus? And what’s its contribution to the current crisis?

GA – This is a good question. Constitutionally speaking Ethiopia is a federated country. There are authority levels and limitations between the Federal government and the Regional governments. But the Constitution is not functioning. EPRDF is not practicing the Constitution. The fundamental rights and freedoms stipulated in the constitution are not respected. They are being muzzled. Human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of organization, are to mention few. My opinion is that the government is not operating following the Constitution.  It must be known that EPRDF is a highly centralized party which has and follows its own program outside of the Constitution. There is nothing like revolutionary democracy in the Constitution; it is a liberal constitution. There is no centralism in the Constitution. The Constitution is designed in such a fabulous manner only to appease the public and the wider world. But what is practiced is EPRDF’s party program. The party releases so many regulations and directives and that is what is used to govern the county. Almost all these papers are written to ensure the hegemony of one party. And all the cadres are guided by these papers. The ‘shared-rule’ and ‘self-rule principles of federalism cannot work in a highly centralized party.  Let me make myself an example. [In 2000] the split within TPLF occurred. When the split occurred, I was the President of Tigray Regional government. I was elected by the Tigray people. But I was sacked by the central government.  This means that the people have no right at all. The party ousts, sacks anybody that it wants to. The regional government, the regional entity has no power at all. This didn’t happen only to me. Abate Kisho, the president of the Southern regions was sacked in a similar manner. In Benishangul and Gambella and Somali regional states the leaders are changed frequently by the order from the EPRDF office. This flawed operation of the Federal system is just one example. But it works in all aspects. The justice system suffers from similar fate as is the military. EPRDF’s central hand is stretched in every aspect.

AS – Often time people talk about first 2000 and then 2005 being the turning points or the downward spiral in the country’s democratic experiment. The implications of these assertions are that all was well before 2000. You were the President of a Regional government before the first turning point in 2000. Do you believe that the country was on the right track before that?

GA– There are two things here: on the one hand I was the President of a regional state, on the other I was a member of EPRDF’s central committee as part of TPLF’s Executive Committee. Decisions were always made not by the regional parliament but by the party’s Executive committee. After that happened, the decision was taken to the public. In what I mentioned earlier as democratic centralism, it is not possible to refuse this. Even if it was wrong, you can’t refuse it. Of course there are possibilities to convince the committeeby raising arguments but it was up to the committee, not the public. One of the flaws of the system, I believe, is this. The party members are everywhere. They are in the Federal system. They are in the civil service structure. And they decide based on the instructions that they receive from above, from the party. Not according to what the public demand and need in every aspect. It must be known that the cause of public resentment, especially now, is this. What the people need is one thing, the party’s interest is another. There is a gap. When I look back at what was happening in the party then, there were arguments and dialogues but when it comes to the relationship between the Federal government and regional states, the dominance lies within the party. It makes the decisions.

AS – Despite these blatant failure of the ruling party to implement the federalism arrangement many people, including some opposition parties, point their fingers at the ethnic (some call it linguistic) federalism to be the main cause of the problem the country finds itself today. What is your opinion of that? Do you think the federalism arrangement is something that is worth protecting or something to blame for the country’s problems today?

GA – I don’t agree with such accusations. Federalism can be arranged in various ways. Now, what we have here in Ethiopia is an ethnic Federalism arrangement. There can also be a Federal arrangement based on geography. But the main thing is not this; the main thing is whether there is a condition for the pubic to choose these freely. Is there a condition to protect the people’s rights and freedoms? I believe that is the fundamental thing. As long as there is no democracy, there is going to be a problem. I mean, if there is a democratic system, those things can be debated upon. If the people don’t like them, the people can change them. But in the absence of democracy, there can’t even be a debate. So what I say is the source to all problems is lack of democratic practices, rights and freedoms by and for the public. As I said earlier the current federalism is not practiced rightly.  It’s just nominal. Yes, people work in their own languages, they celebrate their cultures. But when it comes to essential decisions, the Federal arrangement is not functioning at all. As long as there is a dominance of one party, federalism, ethnic or geographical, cannot function. I don’t think the root of Ethiopian problems is this arrangement. Problems were there long before the system came in place.  TPLF and OLF and others started armed struggle in the absence of this arrangement. It was the lack of democracy. In fact what I believe is that, the structuring of the current system has lessened ethnic resentments.  What the Ethiopian people, including intellectuals should focus on is the absence or presence of democracy. Rights and freedoms must be respected. Without doing this all the attempts will be futile. What I am saying is that this is not the root cause of all problems the country is facing today. It is the dominance of one party and the lack of basic democratic practices.

AS – When you say the dominance of one party, are you saying EPRDF in general or TPLF’s dominance over EPRDF?

 GA – To make it clear, I don’t think EPRDF is a non-existent entity. Their level of power might be different but OPDO is an existing party. ANDM is an existing party. I don’t think those parties are free from taking responsibilities from whatever is happening in the country. I don’t think they have no influence on what is going on. TPLF used to be the most influential one; I doubt if it is like this now. It’s not clear. When I see what is going on and ask if TPLF has the level of influence it used to have, I have [doubts].  But even if TPLF is the most influential party, the other three cannot be exempted from taking the blame.

 AS – What do you mean when you say TPLF might not have the level of influence it once has?  The protests in Oromia throughout the year and quite recently in Amhara have laid bare not only the level of public discontent, but also the deep seated dissatisfactions by the two parties representing the two regions, the OPDO and ANDM against the all too powerful TPLF. Do you agree with that?

 GA – I find it difficult to answer this question with full certainty. However I tried to explain it earlier. Whenever there is a problem, pointing fingers is very common. In my opinion, for the lack of democracy in the country, for the muzzling of rights and freedoms, and for the rampant corruption all member parties of the EPRDF are blameworthy. They participated in the thievery; they have participated in the oppression so they can’t claim innocence. But as I said earlier pointing fingers is very common. TPLF points its fingers at others. It says it has been betrayed as the recent article on Aigaforum claims. It is nothing more than casting blame on others. And the fact is in a union that was not formed in a democratic way, this is inevitable.  Because whenever individuals or groups become stronger the others develop a sentiment of antipathy. When I see TPLF and others, I don’t think the lower level party members think like the leadership. I don’t think the leadership has enough control, influence, on its own members, like it used to have. It’s weak now. Each party has more than a million members. Those members can’t even control what’s going on in oneKebele, or in one Woreda. So when this happens, instead of saying this happens because of us, because of the roads we follow, they say it’s all about failed implementation, even worse, they say it’s because some betrayed us. It’s an inevitable accusation.

AS – What do you think is the best way to address the country’s not only political and economic but also historical crisis without causing a regrettable outcome? What do you see as prescription for redemption, if you will? 

GA– As I see Ethiopia is a country at the verge of crisis. In this regard I agree with what my previous comrades have written about. The crisis is created. In this reality, there are things not just politicians but also the general public must think about. The first one is that in Ethiopia there is lack of one strong guiding vision. So the main thing, I think, is to have a consensus of vision for the country. When I say this I am not denying the fact that each party has its own vision. But it has become a country without a vision which can gather people around. So in order to salvage the country out of this crisis, we must have more dialogues, more ideas. We need ideas, strong ideas that can gather the public together. But since ideas are not enough, strong institutions are needed. Strong parties are needed.  By this I don’t mean dominant party.I think Ethiopia lacks strong national parties that can gather people of all spectrums together. Some of them incline too much to their region. Some others deny the questions of nations and ethnicity; they claim to be national but their influence doesn’t transcend from one region. So I don’t see alternatives in which strong parties with strong vision can be created. We evaluate EPRDF on many parameters and we understand that the party is finding it difficult to bring forth solutions to the problems the country is facing. Or we are saying the party is in crisis. But we must also ask does the alternative certainly has principles and organizations that can bring forth change? We can’t bring in change using the same ideas. What Ethiopia needs is a change of ideas. Besides that there is yet another question that must be raised. Before now, during the Derg and Imperial regimes, there were problems in the country such as lack of democracy, lack of justice, lack of equality. But the country somehow survived these problems and stayed as one. We should be careful that the current situation isn’t any different.  What I see now dominantly, among the radical opposition and EPRDF alike, is the proliferation of racial or ethnic hatred. We can see that in the state owned and affiliated media there is a proliferation of mixing the ruling party with the people. This will lead us to irrevocable conflicts. There is no weak area in this regard, even if it is small. But sadly EPRDF is using it to its advantage. To put it bluntly, TPLF is doing a lot of mobilization saying to the [Tigray] people that chauvinists are going to invade them and they should gather around it. It is trying to make the [Tigray] people believe that all the critiques it is receiving are critiques not against the party but against the [Tigray] people. This is very dangerous. Similarly there are others who mix up the party and the people and spread rumors that the Tigayans are about to do this or that to this or that people. The opposition finds it easy to collect followers by telling people that what’s happening to them is done to them by Tigrayans. The ruling party is doing the same. They have been doing it for quite a long time actually. Every time an election approaches they tell the people in Tigray that chauvinist Amharas are going to engulf them.  And they tell the Amhara that narrow Oromos are coming to destroy them. And for the Oromo they say the chauvinists are going to sabotage them. This is an age old way of the party. And I believe that it has contributed to what is going on now. If religious leaders in this country were not followers and executers of EPRDF’s program who never slide an inch from the party’s dictates, they would have been important in looking for solutions for the country’s problems. The intellectuals and religious leaders must be part of the solution. So what I see as a strategy to get out of this quagmire is there must be an organization with a strong vision which can be an alternative to the EPRDF and which can gather the people of Ethiopia around this vision.

AS – Owing to this monumental failure to uphold the rule of law, many people say the ruling party in Ethiopia has forced its relationship with the people of Ethiopia to become violent. Your own party Arena Tigray has been pushed left and right to a point where peaceful politicking has become virtually impossible. This is leading many people to say that the idea of armed struggle is now becoming the last resort to deal with EPRDF. As a party which is denied the means to a peaceful struggle, do you see Arena Tigray responding to EPRDF’s dominance in what many say is the only means EPRDF understands: armed struggle?

 GA – Your question is right. EPRDF is pushing the people, especially the youth, to the extreme. It made me recall a Central Committee member we once had. He raised an argument that with EPRDF in power it’s impossible to have a peaceful struggle. But we said we have to use the political space that is available, as narrow as it can be, and conduct a peaceful struggle. Otherwise the other way is going to unleash calamity. He finally moved to Eritrea to join TIMIHT. This man represents a way of thinking among the youth. And the narrower the space gets, the more the youth are pushed to pick up armed struggle because they see what they see; they believe peaceful struggle is just getting to jail. But I don’t believe in that; I believe the current movements [the protests in various parts of the country] are essentially peaceful. I have a belief that it is possible to force the government to change. I also believe that it is possible to execute policy in a peaceful way.

Right after the election [in 2015] we have three of our members killed including a member of our central committee here in Addis Abeba. Another of our member was poisoned to death and we have about twenty members in jail. Incidents like this make peaceful struggle difficult. But paying the prices requires us to continue the peaceful struggle. And the protests we are seeing now, I count them as part and parcels of peaceful struggle. Other than that I don’t see anything but bloodshed from armed struggle.

AS – Where is EPRDF taking Ethiopia to?

 GA – This is a very difficult question. A hard one. In its own book, it is taking the country to development, to wealth, to job creation, to the providing of health services and what have you. That’s what it says. Of course there are some changes in some regards. This is undeniable. Access to health and education is better than what it used to be. There are foreign and domestic investments. But this cannot be a source of legitimacy for a regime. The main thing is: is there democracy? Are the rights and freedoms of people protected? A person who owns a cart feeds the horse that pushes the cart but it doesn’t mean that he gives the horse freedom. And humans are different from horses, from animals. Freedom is the main foundation and element of development. What is being seen right now is that people come out to protest, EPRDF kills. It is trying to govern by the force of arms, but the Ethiopian people are not going to accept that. If things continue this way, we are getting into a very dangerous road. Talking about development while refusing to protect the rights and freedoms of the people, who are the main instruments of development, is both insanity and an embarrassment. Any dictatorial regime can build infrastructure but development, in its essence, is intertwined with the rights and freedoms of the people who benefit from it. Unless EPRDF tries to seek its legitimacy from respecting these rights and freedoms, it is taking the country in a wrong way, to a very dangerous place where there might be carnages.

Photo Credit: Addis Standard

“I want the superiority of one ethnic group to end” – Ethiopia’s Olympic Silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa on Al Jazeera
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

In the first installment of this series, the myth of a strong military under the TPLF/EPRDF regime was examined. This sequel article discusses the manifold policies and measures taken by the ruling TPLF/EPRDF’s and their consequences for peace and stability in Ethiopia and the sub region.

A myth promoting the minority TPLF regime as a reliable and stable partner in the Horn of Africa has been circulating for years among Western policy makers, think tank analysts and academics, especially in the US, UK, and other western countries. This should not come as a surprise: since 9/11, the primary preoccupation of western foreign and security policymakers has been fighting global terrorism.

With the security and counter terrorism imperative becoming the primary driver of foreign policy, values the West in general, America in particular, claim to champion such as human rights, democracy, and freedom of the press have long been relegated to the back burner. Ethiopia’s TPLF/EPRDF regime, despite representing only 6% of Ethiopia’s 100 million population, has benefited for many years from this development and reaped an important windfall in the form of direct and indirect support from these countries that has enabled it to extend its lease on state power and perpetuate its neo-totalitarian minority domination and hegemonic rule until today. Aid from the US and the West has continued despite the fact that the minority regime has been committing a range of crimes against the people of Ethiopia with impunity.

Reputable international rights groups, European parliamentarians and American lawmakers have occasionally criticized the TPLF/EPRDF regime’s severe human rights violations. The U.S. State Department’s annual reports have documented and published the widespread abuse of Ethiopia’s people by the minority regime. It has become obvious even among the TPLF/EPRDF’s apologists within these countries’ foreign policy establishments that the government has become highly repressive, authoritarian, and brutal and that it has engaged in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Cases include the Ogaden, where hundreds of villages were burned, thousands executed extra-judicially and hundreds of women were raped by the regime’s security forces.  In Gambella, in just a single day in 2003, over 400 Anuaks were massacred.  To date, not a single perpetrator has been held accountable.

Since the onset of protests ten months ago by the Oromo, the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, followed by more protests by the second largest ethnic group, the Amhara, in Gondar and Gojam, the minority regime has intensified its brutal repression in these regions to the point that  it could be characterized as ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of unarmed protesters have been killed and tens of thousands thrown into concentration camps in remote parts of the country under horrific conditions of torture, hard labor, and disappearance. Many are feared to have been extra-judicially executed or taken to the regime’s Tigrayan homeland to be held incommunicado in dungeons that the TPLF has used since its guerilla days.

International media outlets have noted about the horror in Ethiopia as follows: NY Times wrote “…..The government’s response, according to human rights groups, was ruthless. Witnesses said that police officers shot and killed scores of unarmed demonstrators. Videos circulating from protests thought to be from late last year or earlier this year show security officers whipping young people with sticks as they are forced to perform handstands against a wall. The top United Nations human rights official is now calling for a thorough investigation…..”[1]

The BBC has reported “…..Oromia and Amhara are the homelands of the country’s two biggest ethnic groups. New York-based Human Rights Watch says that more than 400 people have been killed in clashes with the security forces in Oromia, although the government disputes this figure….”[2]

Deutsche Welle had the following to say; “….The Ethiopian government receives some 3.5 billion dollars (3 billion euros) annually from international donors and has remained a key strategic partner of the West, particularly the US and the EU, in the ‘war against terror.’ However, analysts argue this financial support has been toughening the regime’s resolve to silence dissenting voices. The western approach of tiptoeing around human right violations in the country and its continued support for the regime has been stirring up anger among sections of the public…..”[3]

Despite the outcry by some foreign observers, most policymakers and government officials of the US, UK, and other donor nations have, for the most part, looked the other way. At best, they have expressed “deep concern,” as they have often declared during the past 25 years of the TPLF/EPRDF’s cruel tenure at the helm of the Ethiopian state. Tragically, these policy makers, pundits, and analysts are blind to the cracks that are widening day by day in Ethiopia’s society, state, and security apparatus, including the defense forces, as a consequence.

These obvious trends taking place under the minority TPLF regime resulted, in part, because of the blank check that Western powers, especially the United States, wrote to the minority regime that they regarded as a partner for stability and security in the Horn of Africa. Contrary to the erroneous assumption on which that policy is based, Ethiopia under the minority TPLF regime is a destabilizing force in the region.  In fact, the TPLF ruling clique is creating so much insecurity in every sphere of Ethiopian national life that it has alienated the vast majority of the population.

Misrule, poor governance, rampant abuse of power, massive corruption and rent seeking pervade the highest echelons of the civilian and military leadership of the TPLF/EPRDF. Domination and hegemony of political and economic life by a minority ethnic group to an extent never before known in Ethiopia’s history and unbridled private appropriation of public state resources to aggrandize ethnic and political cronies have become the norm.  These rampant violations of the Ethiopian people’s rights are the key features of the Ethiopian state under the TPLF/EPRDF.

The minority regime has closed all meaningful avenues of peaceful dissent, especially since the election of 2005, when the governing TPLF/EPRDF fraudulently declared itself the winner. Other characteristics of the TPLF/EPRDF regime that have widened the nation’s fault lines include:

1. Bogus democracy, the closing of political space, organized and systematic repression to paralyze and weaken the legal opposition, rigged elections and courts used as tools to persecute civil society groups, political dissidents and journalists. The absence of free media and the denial of basic human rights.
2. Suppression of religious freedom, especially the regime’s obdurate attempts to control the internal affairs of the Orthodox Church and the Muslim faithful. The ruthless crackdown on Ethiopian Muslims, who have been demanding religious freedom in the most disciplined and exemplar peaceful disobedience protest movement in recent times.
3. Sham federalism, where regional autonomy exists only on paper and the country is in reality dominated by the center. The imposition of TPLF puppets on regional governments.
4. Massive corruption and corrupt exploitation of state and public resources by a single ethnic clique and its political cronies.
5. Crimes against humanity, including mass murder and torture, committed with impunity.
6. An unpopular constitution, forced on Ethiopia’s people at gunpoint and designed to serve and perpetuate the Tigray minority ruling elite
7. Unfair and unequal distribution of resources, and the politicization of aid distribution.
8. Systematic denial of promotion and advancement opportunities to non-Tigrayans in the military and civil service.
9. Monopolization of economic opportunities by a small ethnic-based elite.
10. Discredited “revolutionary democracy” economic policies secretly meant to control people rather than deliver sustainable and equitable development.

The resulting fault lines created by these practices divide Ethiopia across several planes:

1. Growing ethnic conflicts resulting from an apartheid-like system imposed against the people’s will.
2. Crackdowns on low intensity insurgencies and liberation movements in nearly every part of the country that further alienate the people from the regime.
3. Resentment by the military’s lower ranks against the senior officers.
4. An increase in secessionist sentiment in multiple ethnic regions.
5. A growing and spreading acceptance of armed struggle as a solution to the country’s problems.
6. Islamic radicalism.
7. Loss of moral authority by the Church.
8. Tensions with neighboring countries.
9. Economic desperation, abject poverty, and unemployment feeding inequality.
10. Disenfranchisement of the non-Tigrayan business class.
11. Severe cracks and simmering contradictions within the ruling TPLF/EPRDF on the one hand, and the increasing conflicts and contradictions of the leadership with that of the mid-level and lower levels members of the Amhara and Oromo junior partners of the dominant TPLF in the so-called

These fault lines, which have been spreading for some time, are too big and too many to ignore.  It was naïve to expect that the status quo would continue without a reaction that is opposite and more than equal.

The TPLF/Tigrayan grip on Ethiopia’s military, economy, society and critical institutions of the state and the denial of non-Tigrayans any say in their own country’s affairs have been facts of life for twenty-five years. When one encounters Ethiopian visitors and new immigrants to the US and Europe, the population’s preoccupation with this state of affairs is evident in the disturbing overabundance of stories reflecting this chilling reality and the extreme alienation and marginalization of non-Tigrayans in their nation’s affairs.

According to several studies, over 85% of the military command structure is comprised of TPLF members, while a similar percentage of the lower ranks are non-Tigrayans.  The lion’s share of the economy, according to some studies as much as two-thirds, is owned and run by Tigrayan-controlled corporations and parastatals, such as the Endowment for the Relief and Rehabilitation of Tigray (“EFFORT”), a giant conglomerate owned and operated by the TPLF leadership and its senior cadres. Most of the major foreign-financed contracts and projects in the country are given without competitive bidding to various concerns operating under the EFFORT umbrella.  METEC, a military-industrial  complex that runs several armaments and metal factories, including those taken over from the former DERG/WEP regime, is controlled and managed almost entirely by former TPLF fighters and has become a cash cow for retiring TPLF military officers.  Again, like EFFORT, the METEC Corporation has played a dominant role in the economy by getting a significant portion of all no-bid government contracts next to EFFORT owned companies.

It is public knowledge that the senior leaders, generals, cadres of the TPLF and their proxies own high rise buildings , shopping malls and other ill-gotten assets in addition to many of them holding real estate and liquid assets in foreign countries. These assets were not earned or accumulated through hard work but from the unprecedented corruption and the plunder of state resources at the expense of the Ethiopian people. According to a study by the Oakland Institute, a California based think tank, over 70% of the owners of property acquired in a recent land grab bonanza in Ethiopia’s Gambella region are TPLF military officers and civilian elites. The same sordid practice is going on in the Afar region, where even salt production, traditionally the domain of the indigenous afars, has been taken over by Tigrayans linked to the TPLF regime.  Similar stories of massive acquisition of public resources unjustly acquired throughout Ethiopia by TPLF and Tigrayans affiliated with the regime are widely circulated.

In order to further understand the all-pervasive domination of the economy and the state apparatus, in every sense of the word, including the unbridled plunder of public resources  by Tigrayans elite affiliated with the TPLF and the mafia like inner working of the TPLF and EPRDF, there are two must read books, YeMeles Trufat, and Ye Meles Liqaqit . Authored   in Amharic language by Ermias Legesse, former Deputy Minister of Communications, who  now works for ESAT , these books are worth reading  to find plethora of data and evidence of  a  very  disturbing phenomena in today’s Ethiopia, i.e. an extremely greedy and  short sighted  TPLF leadership, cadres,  and Tigrayan elite affiliated with the TPLF engaged in massive plunder, deception, corruption, and perpetual and obdurate machinations to dominate everyone and everything  in Ethiopia as if there is no tomorrow.

Almost all prison officials and those who commit horrific torture of the Oromo, Amhara and other political prisoners, accompanied by degrading ethnic insults no less, are, for the most part, Tigrayans. The security services, critical institutions and machineries of the state, foreign affairs, are run by Tigrayans.  This is a tragic and dangerous situation.

In a recent Amharic-language article, longtime analyst and commentator on Ethiopian politics Fekade Shewakena, a former lecturer at Addis Ababa University, making reference to a series of recent public statement by TPLF bigwigs, Siyoum Mesfin, among others,  a leading figure of the TPLF and former Foreign Minister, known for telling big lies about the ruling of The Permanent Court of Arbitration regarding  the Ethio-Eritrea border dispute– has called on the Tigrayn ruling elite to have the courage to face up to this grim reality of their own making and end the deception. Fekade has called on the TPLF leaders to stop their dangerous instigation of ethnic violence to create an excuse for continuing their repression against the widespread dissent in the country.[4]

Professor Al Mariam, attorney and well-known blogger has made a similar call in his most recent article.[5]

Most recently Olympic silver medalist, Feyisa Lilesa, who brought global attention to Ethiopia’s political crisis with his defiant gesture at Rio Olympics, stated, “I want the superiority of one ethnic group to end”.  Feyisa was talking about the daily life in Ethiopia that the TPLF’s leaders and apologists consistently deny. Their complete denial of the naked reality sometimes appears that the ruling clique is afflicted with cognitive dissonance, a complete separation from reality which they desperately utilize all forms of propaganda instruments to camouflage.

Several respected scholars and political analysts have also asked the question: Where will this sense of marginalization, alienation, resentment, and anger on the part of non-Tigrayan Ethiopians lead the country? Another prominent Ethiopian who has worked in the international system, including as UN Emergency relief coordinator in various failed African states, Dawit Giorgis recently wrote, “As was the case in Rwanda decades ago, the accumulated anger directed at this minority group is likely to explode and result in a human catastrophe with serious implications on regional stability,” underlining the depth of crisis in present day Ethiopia.[6]

Without a doubt, a seismic eruption is in the making in Ethiopia. Deep anger, resentment, and even hatred are festering as a result of the people’s despair and humiliation at the conditions described above. Such conditions are deepening in manifold ways and their manifestations include the growing numbers of Ethiopians joining armed resistance groups. The coming reaction by so many sectors of Ethiopian society who have been alienated and disenfranchised by the regime is clear to see.

In the first installment in this series of articles titled, “The Myth of a Strong Army/Security under the TPLF/EPRDF Regime,”[7] this writer predicted that, under the apartheid-like conditions the TPLF has instituted, where the Tigrayans are the movers and shakers of all levers of power in the armed forces, the majority of the armed forces who are non-Tigrayns would either join the armed resistance or simply melt away. Such incidents have been observed since the onset of the Amhara protest in Gondar in the past few months. Hundreds of army, federal police, and Special Forces have joined the people’s struggle around Gondar, or have simply abandoned their posts, as reported by credible media sources, including Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT). Despite frequent speeches and televised appearances by cynical senior TPLF cadres aimed at scaring the people of Ethiopia into compliance, this trend will continue and surely become widespread as the population continues to intensify its struggle for the  freedom, rights, and dignity denied to them by a brutal minority regime that is bent on perpetuating its neo-totalitarian minority ethnic domination and maintain state power by any and all means necessary, even at the cost of a national break-up or civil war. The excesses of today’s rulers in Ethiopia are too much for their Western allies to contend with. It’s easier to just sweep them under the rug and pretend they don’t exist. But they do exist, and, as a matter of fact, are increasing in magnitude.  The coming convergence of the above-described fault lines will undoubtedly drive Ethiopia further toward instability, civil strife, and even worse scenarios.

The stakes are too high for the US, UK, and other western allies of the TPLF/EPRDF regime to just sit back and watch as a simmering volcanic eruption rocks Ethiopia and spews national chaos and instability spread to the sub-region.  It is in the strategic interest of these countries, including the international partnership on counter terrorism, that Ethiopia has a stable, popular and democratic government elected by free, fair and transparent process. Peace and stability in Ethiopia could only endure under the rule of law and established rule of the games in economic and other spheres that are fair and just for all Ethiopians in an open and competitive economic and political system.

The United States, the UK, Canada and other donor nations and allies to the minority regime must, therefore, look beyond their misguided and short-term interest and support the establishment of an inclusive transitional Ethiopian government that would pave the way toward a genuine constitutional democratic political order and replace the sham democracy and federalism that has masked the plunder and repression of an entire country by a minority clique.  This is the only realistic way to reverse the downward trajectory of chaos, civil war, even worse nightmarish scenarios that may engulf Ethiopia before it becomes “too little, too late” to prevent. Only the determined, combined effort of Ethiopians who have a realistic understanding of the current situation under the minority regime, Ethiopia’s foreign friends and other interested stakeholders can stop it before it is too late. A “brittle”,  neo-totalitarian  minority regime  rejected by the majority and facing so many internal fault lines that are ever widening and deepening  in magnitude cannot be a durable  ally for real peace, security, and stability in the volatile Horn of Africa that has seen one too many failed states.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/13/world/africa/ethiopia-protests.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEthiopia&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection&_r=0

[2]  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36940906

[3] http://www.dw.com/en/ethiopian-anti-government-protests-set-to-contin

[4]http://ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/16973/

[5] http://www.zehabesha.com/disinformation-in-t-tplf-land-of-living-lies-pinocchio-preaches-truth-against-perception-in-ethiopia/

[6] http://ecadforum.com/2016/08/18/the-horn-another-civil-war-looming/

[7] http://ecadforum.com/2016/06/29/the-myth-of-a-stable-ethiopia-under-a-minority-regime/

Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) On Recent Events in Ethiopia Congressional record

MR. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to bring the Senate’s attention to the Ethiopian government’s brutal crackdown on protestors over the past nine months. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 500 people have been killed by Ethiopian security forces in anti-government demonstrations since November 2015, including over 100 gunned down in early August of this year alone.

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These protests by the country’s two largest ethnic groups, the Oromos and Amharas, reflect enduring tensions brought on by the Ethiopian government’s longstanding marginalization and persecution of these communities. But such grievances are shared by even broader segments of Ethiopian society, including from other communities that have been forcibly evicted from their land in the name of development, and the journalists, civil society activists, and countless other political prisoners sitting in Ethiopian jails for speaking out against the government’s repressive rule.

The international community, including the United States, has paid too little attention to the Ethiopian government’s repressive policies, focusing instead on the country’s rapid development gains and the government’s cooperation on regional security. But it is time for the Ethiopian government to acknowledge that grievances stemming from marginalization, abuse, and exclusive governance cannot be effectively addressed through the provision of basic services alone.

The United States should set an example by redefining its relationship with Ethiopia, starting with the recognition of this reality. In too many developing countries, legitimate concerns about unaccountable governance are given short shrift as aspirational and inconvenient tradeoffs for positive relations with host governments. But the quiet diplomacy of the past – backroom condemnation and public praise – has proven unable to ensure the sustainability of U.S. investments by failing to protect and promote stability, let alone encourage meaningful reform by the Ethiopian government.

It is precisely because Ethiopia is a strategic partner of the U.S. that we should encourage remedies to the underlying tensions in the country. That does not mean we walk away from our partnership, but we should examine the type of assistance we provide to the Ethiopian government to ensure it aligns with shared interests and activities that contribute to government capacity in a manner that addresses local concerns.

This is not without its challenges, and the only government that has the ability to successfully reform Ethiopia is its own. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the rest of the Ethiopian leadership should begin by reassessing its crowd control tactics, and ensuring accountability for those who have committed abuses. I support the call by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for an independent, transparent, thorough and effective investigation into violations of human rights committed during the unrest, and if the Ethiopian government is interested in demonstrating its legitimacy it would welcome such an inquiry.

I look forward to working with other Members of Congress, the Obama Administration and their successors to determine how best we can ensure that the assistance U.S. taxpayers provide to Ethiopia serves our long-term interests in the region.

Source:-Leahy.senate.gov

Continuing conflict in South Sudan threatens to add more refugees to September’s 30,000 total, says UNHCR in Ethopia

By Seleshi Tessema

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) operation in Ethiopia said on Thursday it is bracing itself for a new influx of South Sudanese after some 30,000 arrived earlier this month.

Kisut Gebreegziabher of the UNHCR’s Ethiopia office told Anadolu Agency the number of new arrivals in September had surpassed the agency’s expectations.

“Following the peace deal between the warring factions of South Sudan, we were hoping for a marked decrease in the flow of refugees,” he said.

According to him, fears of war, food shortages and the overall situation in the country have forced more South Sudanese to cross into Ethiopia in record numbers since Sept. 3.

“The resources at our disposal are quite limited as we anticipate a rise in the flow to a daily average of 1,000 people,” Kisut said.

Child refugees make up well over half of the new arrivals.

According to the UNHCR, Ethiopia hosts the world’s fifth-largest refugee population of some 74,000 people.