Ethiomedia.com -- Ethiopia in her long history has been a victim of repeated naked aggression, subversion, and foreign-instigated terrorism. The international community seldom expressed its cursory condemnation of these atrocities. The aim of this writing is to point out some of the injustices done to Ethiopia over the years and to remind my fellow Ethiopians that we have only our God and ourselves to define, pursue, and protect our legitimate national interests, which will include a principled policy against any form of aggression or terrorism. It is only fair to demand that Western powers in particular reciprocate in a manner that is more than lip service by discarding multiple standards by which they judge human rights violations. These powers are morally bound to condemn state-sponsored violence occurring outside their boarders such as in Ethiopia and cease dealing with dictators like the traitor Meles Zenawi.
I sincerely and strongly deplore the abortive bombing of London transport system on the 21st of July 2005, following the first devastating attack (on 07 July 2005) on the system that sadly claimed 56 lives and caused injuries to hundreds of innocent people. It is morally right that both terrorist attacks drew a chorus of condemnation from the international community.
The London Police were understandably overwhelmed by the seriousness of these criminal acts and were engaged in their frantic hunt to catch the culprits. In the heat of the arduous task of pursuing the criminals, an innocent Brazilian was shot dead with eight bullets at close range, ostensibly ‘mistaking’ him for a terrorist because his figure and brown color fit the Police profile of a person of Asian origin. The incident caused public uproar, and the government issued a swift apology saying: “ The British Government is very, very sorry about the shooting”. The British government has already set up an independent enquiry to investigate the tragic event, which has evoked a serious debate in the United Kingdom.
The apology and the drive for an independent inquiry is a laudable civilized behavior that one would expect from the British government, or any other Western government for that matter. The sad thing however is that this Western standard of civil rights seldom applies, if at all, to the genuine plight of Africans under despotic rulers – unless the activities of those rulers run counter to Western interests.
The position taken by the British government over the shooting of the Brazilian is in sharp contrast to the red carpet treatment at the G8 Summit accorded to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who has ordered the execution of 40 innocent civilians in cold blood, thrown thousands into jail under harsh conditions, and made many to suffer mental and physical tortures. Meles the butcher, has neither apologized to the families of the bereaved and the Ethiopian people nor instituted his promised ‘investigation’ into the heinous crime attributed to state-sponsored violence orchestrated by the very few innermost clique of Stalinists in his TPLF regime. I do not know whether Prime Minister Tony Blair has even privately regretted for inviting the tyrant Meles to the G8 Summit where the killer basked in the lavish functions of powerful world leaders exchanging smiles and champaign toasts even as atrocities in Ethiopia were taking their tolls. I doubt whether the British Prime Minister would help end tyranny in Ethiopia.
It is agonizingly disheartening to see that help is coming from some quarters in the West to alter the tainted image of the tyrant despite overwhelming international condemnation of the atrocities committed by Meles Zenawi and his cohorts. The following are but a few vexing recent examples meant to improve the image of the traitor:
* Red carpet treatment was accorded to the tyrant at the G8 Summit against the backdrop of the massacre of forty (40) Ethiopians and numerous monstrous state-sponsored atrocities committed by the security forces under the direct command of Meles. Incidentally, it was on the very same date of 08 June 2005 when Meles was throwing a lavish graduation party for his daughter at the Sheraton Hotel (owned by his close friend and ardent supporter, Sheikh Alamoudin) that the said massacre and other atrocities were being committed;
* Visit by General John Abizaid of the US Central Command and intimate discussion with the despotic ruler. The General at his news conference hailed the US-Ethiopian relations as excellent and promised that military aid to Ethiopia will increase;
* Surprising silence of President Bush, despite his rhetoric that democratic changes in every country can count on the support of the United States, to make a public comment on the genuinely democratic election of 15 May 2005 and the despicable state-sponsored violence in its aftermath;
* Announcement of US$ 200,000 prize by a Norwegian Fertilizer Company to be awarded by Professor Jeffery Sachs to Meles in recognition of ‘his contribution to improved food security and nutrition’ in Ethiopia. This futile and cheap attempt to save the image of the murderer has effectively been exposed by knowledgeable patriotic Ethiopians.
Let me provide some historical facts interlaced with my comments regarding the harrowing experience that Ethiopia has gone through in her relations with foreign powers:
* The League of Nations, of which Ethiopia was a founding member, tacitly condoned the invasion of Fascist Italy, which brought untold sufferings to the Ethiopian people;
* British Field Officers, soon after World War II, conceived and created the first Waayane (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front) to dismember Ethiopia. It took a lot of sacrifice to defeat Waayane I. The Ethiopian people are presently engaged in a fierce struggle to end the tyrannical rule of the Stalinist Waayane II over the last fourteen years;
* Haile Selassie I sent His elite battalion first to the Korean Peninsula to fight against Communist North Korea; and then for the second time to the Congo, to remove Patrick Lumumba from power for his left leaning ideology. Both military expeditions were carried out under the United Nations Flag, purportedly to meet obligations of ‘collective security’. The Communist countries and the Dergue regime used these two military expeditions as a potent weapon against the policy of alliance of the Emperor with the West;
* The defunct USSR heavily armed the regime of Ziad Barre of Somalia for the vicious aim to destabilize Ethiopia because our country was seen to be an ally of the West during the cold war. As a result, Ethiopia’s borders were violated; many Ethiopians were displaced, injured and killed in cold blood by the Army of Somalia;
* The US government, a staunch ally of Emperor Haile Selassie, was at one time requested to provide more military equipment and warheads to deter a growing military threat from Ethiopia’s neighbors. The request was turned down on grounds that the Ethiopian Army possessed enough military hardware and warheads in its arsenal to fight or deter insurgents within the country. That meant the US government was providing arms, not for the defense of Ethiopia against external enemies, but to suppress internal political dissents and perpetuate the power of an absolute Monarch;
* The US government: threatened to order air bombardment from its Air Force Base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, unless the Ethiopian Air Force complies with the order to bomb the Headquarters of the Imperial Bodyguard in Addis Ababa during the attempt by Brigadier General Mengistu Neway to overthrow the Emperor in December 1960. The Carter Administration also later refused to deliver critically needed military equipment for which Ethiopia had paid, thus forcing the Military regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam to solicit for arms from the former USSR to fight Somalian aggression;
* The US government was quick and the first to give recognition to the Eritrean independence, which has left Ethiopia and her 72 million people landlocked; this action by the USA resulted in the gravest damage to the economic lifeline of Ethiopia and her other strategic interests;
* Iraq under its evil dictator Sadam Hussein and other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt were financing, arming, and training separatist gorilla fighters to destabilize, weaken and break up Ethiopia. Pakistan played a similar role as an extremist Islamic state;
* The US government presently pursues the policy of making Ethiopia its power base in the fight against Al Qaeda, a scheme that will intensify enmity of radical and/or conservative Islamic states who were and are acting in concert to subvert Ethiopia’s interests. It would be a wrong policy for the US government to pursue an alliance with a repressive regime of Meles Zenawi who has lost the support of the Ethiopian people through the election of 15 May 2005, which amounted to a convincing referendum to reject the dictatorial rule of the past fourteen years of the traitor.
The historical facts and comments above show that foreign powers care less about the emergence of democracy in Ethiopia and welfare of her people, for their own interest is always paramount. They find it convenient to deal with dictators in the pursuit of their interests. I am disappointed that there is no positive sign that President George W. Bush will honor his promise to discard the policy of former US governments of forging alliance with dictators, as he put it, of the last sixty years.
When asked, what legal authority he had to by-pass the Parliament and declare a state of emergency, Meles responded by saying that, after all, the donors did not object to the action he took. His response is solid proof, among others, that the monstrous killer is subservient to the interests of the donors at the expense of the vital interests of poor Ethiopia. Donors are cunning actors who alienate African Leaders from their peoples by corrupting, blackmailing, and turning them into greedy dictators so that they will have no choice but obey the orders of neocolonialists.
Our beloved country Ethiopia continues to be a pawn on the chessboard of foreign players, for which Meles the traitor is their loyal servant. Meles has deceitfully and cleverly appointed himself as the champion for the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa, ironically as if he is not a terrorist himself engaged in the massacre of Ethiopians. In the fight against terrorism, the US government would be ill advised to trust the tyrant vis-a-vis the Opposition Leaders comprising principled Ethiopians, highly-educated in the West and currently enjoying the confidence of the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians. I call on the USA now, as I always did, to join the vast majority of the Ethiopian people, which is supporting the Opposition in order to win the fight over dictators, terrorists and terrorism!
It is unacceptable to live under the leadership of Meles Zenawi who is sinking Ethiopia into the abyss. As civilized and cultured Ethiopians, we cannot tolerate the vulgar, abrasive, offensive and abusive words exuding from the mouth of this traitor, killer, and pathological liar. Therefore I strongly believe that the only choice for us Ethiopians is to remove the traitor from power through intensified and concerted peaceful struggle. The choice of the Ethiopian people at the polls of 15 May 2005 must be upheld and sustained. For the arduous and noble struggle ahead, Ethiopians, given the past and present bitter experiences of our country, should realize that they have only their God and themselves to score victory over tyranny and abject poverty plaguing the people of our motherland.
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