Analysis: Nile Diplomacy: Cunning Arm Twists and Turns, but whose losing game?

Zecharias Zelalem, Special to Addis Standard

Addis Abeba, Feb. 10/2017 – On January 9, 2017, South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, arrived in Cairo, Egypt, to meet with his counterpart, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and discuss, according to media reports, “bilateral ties.” With most media either unable or unwilling to go beyond the official transcript, details of what exactly has prompted Egypt’s leader to invite the embattled South Sudanese President to the Ettihadeya Palace (just a few weeks after president Al-Sisi met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe), remain sketchy; it left a lot of room for a lot of speculation.

Did Al-Sisi, Kiir and Museveni Form Alliance against Ethiopia and Sudan?

Nearly a day after Kiir’s arrival in Egypt, The South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) published an article making some bold statements claiming, among other things, that it had firsthand information about discussions of a “dirty deal” in the works between South Sudan, Egypt, and to a certain extent, Uganda.

The source, unnamed, but identified by the news agency as someone in the upper echelons of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), was allegedly in Addis Abeba when he told the website that Egypt was seeking to funnel weapons to the South Sudanese government in an attempt to quash that country’s rebel uprising, end the civil war, and solidify Kiir’s leadership in power.

The SPLM-IO, formed by former Vice President Riek Machar, has been fighting to take the capital Juba since falling out with president Kiir in December 2013. If one goes by the assertions made in this news dispatch, the possibility of the Egyptians facilitating a speedy put down of the SPLM-IO armed wing is what has allegedly wetted President Kiir’s appetite and motivated him to turn towards Al-Sisi. Afterwards, Kiir would repay the favor by jointly working with Al-Sisi to either destabilize or coerce neighboring Khartoum to politically side with Egypt over the controversial, lingering and most sensitive matter, the use of the Nile River.

South Sudan is not Afraid of Ethiopia: Information Ministry Official Warns!

But, a few seconds of skimming through the SSNA website would reveal to a keen observer the clear anti-South Sudanese government stance the media network maintains. There is a possibility that the website may simply blow things out of proportion in an attempt to provoke Ethiopia into hostility towards the governments of South Sudan and Egypt. With the report leaving no room for verification, the story could even be an outright fabrication, a figment of an editor’s imagination.

But then again it isn’t entirely infeasible. Egypt and Ethiopia have always been historical foes. Despite Al-Sisi’s conspicuous warm tone towards Ethiopia as compared to the openly hostile rhetoric by some of his predecessors, Egypt’s national interests, especially on matters of the Nile, are something whose importance cannot be wished away. Therefore, it wouldn’t be something totally out of the blue to suggest that Egypt’s diplomatic foreplay with sub-Saharan states has a rather ominous nature.

Ethiopia, too, has been repeatedly accusing Egypt of stoking tensions by funding domestic elements that exacerbated recent protest movements in its midst which rocked the government to its core throughout 2016.

Could there be a grain of truth to the claims that something sinister was indeed agreed to in Cairo during the meeting between presidents Al-Sisi and Kiir? Besides Egypt’s long-standing resent towards upper riparian states of the Nile Basin, why would President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi see now as a crucial time to make such a move? What effect would such a move and likely renewal of open diplomatic hostilities have on the region?

True, the reality looks a lot less dramatic than what the SSNA website tried to paint, yet a combination of diplomatic blunders, arm twists, misunderstanding, and, yes, a lack of clear communication on the part of all parties involved may have turned an easily solvable dispute into something far more complicated.

One country’s trouble is…

In Ethiopia, 2016 was a year marked by domestic uprisings and the subsequent killings by security forces of yet unknown numbers of protesters in the Amhara and Oromia regions. Activists and right groups estimate that the number of deaths could reach up to a thousand people; tens of thousands are detained.

In October 2016, barely a week after the deaths of yet unknown numbers of festival goers at the annual Oromo Irreecha festival in the city of Bishoftu, 45kms south of Addis Abeba, the government finally divulged what it said was the extent of the loss of life. PM Hailemariam Desalegn admitted that up to 500 Ethiopians “may have lost” their lives during the months preceding the tragedy in Bishotu, but reiterated that his desire to crack down on “extremist” elements, who, according to him, had ‘hijacked’ the protest movements, would not soften. It was around the same time that he placed the blame squarely on Egypt.

Ethiopia, a country which was regularly enjoying a portrayal as a business hub with one of the world’s fastest growing economies, is now seeing its name become synonymous with bloodshed and political instability. In an attempt to turn the tide against the demonstrators, a six-month state of emergency was declared. Federal security forces have since thrived in managing security-related affairs and quelling the uprisings.  The now legitimatized, extra-constitutional course of action by the military, combined with the blockage of mobile internet services across the country, have indeed resulted in calming down the protests; but it led to the arrest of thousands of citizens and has brought a severe blow to the Ethiopian economy as it rendered a plethora of businesses across the country inoperable.

Clearly, the government in Ethiopia is stagnating from the self-defeating measures it took to regain control of the country. In this process, it has also clearly articulated being unhappy with the likes of Egypt. In response, Egypt denied having anything to do with Ethiopia’s protest movements and insisted they aren’t conspiring against Ethiopia. “I want to assure the brothers in Ethiopia that Egypt has never ever offered any support to the opposition and will not carry out any conspiratorial action against Ethiopia,” Al-Sisi said in a speech to an audience of military officials.

Al-Sisi’s attempt at trying to calm tensions between the two countries is a standard diplomatic procedure. Commenting on whether Egypt’s government is indeed in cahoots with saboteurs in Ethiopia would also be mere speculation. However, unless something was lost in translation, Al-Sisi’s claim that Egypt has never offered any support to Ethiopian opposition is evidently false.

Perhaps the broad context of the quote was misunderstood, and Al-Sisi was referring only to having not engaged in conspiratorial actions against “the brothers in Ethiopia” since he came to power. But if the word for word statement, as was widely reported by the media, is taken at face value, Al-Sisi is either misinformed, has a poor grasp of Egyptian history, or has blatantly lied when he claimed that his country has never conspired against Ethiopia (the third possibility being the most likely).

 It is in the archives      

There is plenty of recorded evidence of Egypt’s ‘fratricidal’ efforts.

The 19^th century Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, at the helm of the Ottoman-Egyptian army, attacked Ethiopian troops in what is now the modern-day Eritrea. He was backed by Turkish soldiers and mercenary military experts, such as American Confederate veteran, General William Loring, and Dane military tactician, Colonel Soren Arendrup. In the conflict that lasted from 1874-1876, the Egyptians suffered colossal defeats in two battles at the hands of Emperor Yohannes’ Ethiopian army.

Those days where war was fought with dum-dum bullets and arrows have long passed. But Egypt continued to preside over a monumental military and air force considered by many to be among the best in the world. More often than not, Egyptian leaders have used their army as a bargaining chip (and at times as a threat) against Ethiopian leaders who dared question Egypt’s total dominance of the Nile waters. Luckily, it hasn’t had to directly deploy its forces; but proxy elements have been quite effective in doing the job over the course of the twentieth century.

Egypt’s training of the Somalia national army and funding of the separatist Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) helped the then Somalia President Siad Barre’s expansionist efforts into Ethiopia. In 1977, Somalia invaded Ethiopiaand caused considerable death and destruction in the country before an Ethio-Cuban force reversed their gains and forced them to withdraw from Ethiopia’s Ogaden region.

After the failure of Somalia to conquer the Ogaden region, in 1979, Anwar Sadat openly threatened Ethiopia with a war over the Nile saying “the only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water.” Afterward, several separatist groups saw success in their efforts to destabilize Ethiopia. The Eritrean Peoples’ Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF), both recipients of arms and funds generously given to them by Egypt, among other states, would later become the backbone of the rebel forces during the nearly two decades of civil war in Ethiopia that eventually brought the end of Mengistu Hailemariam’s communist rule in 1991.

In 2012, a report on the news media, Business Insider, has referred to the Wikileaks release of hacked emails from American intelligence company Stratfor revealed the extent to which Egypt was preparing to go to halt the construction of a dam on the Nile. One email from 2010, just a week after Ethiopia inaugurated the Tana Beles dam, in particular alleged that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir have agreed to establish a secret Egyptian military base in the Sudanese city of Kosti, some 700 kilometers from the Ethiopian border. The base would host Egyptian commando units who could be ordered to storm the construction site of any project in Ethiopia that Egypt feels would compromise its dominance of the Nile waters.

All this was apparently agreed to in 2010, nearly a year before the unveiling of Ethiopia’s Millennium Dam (renamed Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – GERD) project, which was a national secret at the time.

Ethiopia Made a Mistake to Build Dam Without Permission From Egypt

President Al-Sisi was the country’s director of military intelligence when the Egyptian-Sudanese Kosti base agreement was reached. Ethiopia would wait until March 2011, a few months after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, before it made the news of the dam public.

Another Wikileaks document quoted a high-level Egyptian intelligence as saying: “there will not be a war. If it comes to a crisis, we will send a jet to bomb the dam and come back in one day, simple as that. Or we can send our special forces to block/sabotage the dam. But we aren’t going for the military option now. This is just contingency planning. Look back to an operation Egypt did in the mid-late 1970s; I think 1976 when Ethiopia was trying to build a large dam. We blew up the equipment while it was traveling by sea to Ethiopia.”

Having seen these revelations, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that the jury is still in regarding President Al-Sisi’s statement in October 2016. Anyone with a cursory glance at Egypt’s history of direct and indirect meddling in the affairs of countries contemplating to build dams on the Nile River can come to the conclusion that Al-Sisi’s claim of Egypt’s innocence is at the very least dishonest. There is no doubt that Al-Sisi, a man who spent nearly four decades serving the Egyptian military in various capacities, would know more than others of his country’s traditional hostility towards Ethiopia.

Change of heart, a space agency & spies

But is it possible that Egypt has had a change of heart? Things on the geopolitical front are very different in 2017 than they were in 2010 or even 2013. For all the theories surrounding its delay, the completion of the GERD appears inevitable; Nile basin countries are becoming bolder in their aspirations and the Nile River treaties of 1929 and 1954 have been somewhat rendered null and void. Although it is impossible to rule out suggestions that Egypt has continued flirting with anti-Ethiopian dam activities, it appears to have realized that its best shot at securing its interests would be through diplomacy and negotiations; its keen participation in meetings and seminars organised by upper riparian states and the conspicuous toning down of its aggressive rhetoric is visible for everyone to see.

In April of 2014, The Egyptian Space Agency launched the “EgyptSat 2” satellite into space, from a Russian-operated spaceport in Kazakhstan. Alaa El-din El-Nahry, vice president of Egypt’s National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, told an Egyptian news website that among mission objectives, carefully monitoring the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), would be an utmost priority for the EgyptSat 2 team. The official reasoning is that capturing high definition photos of the dam’s construction and tracking the dam’s height, storage capacity and water discharge will arm Egypt with crucial information.

In the first week of May 2014, not even a month after the launch of EgyptSat2, three Egyptian citizens were arrested by Ethiopia’s Gambella state police. The trios were said to have entered Ethiopia illegally from South Sudan, and were caught with fraudulent documentations.  Two of them were arrested trying to board a bus that would take them to the city of Asosa, near the GERD construction site. The third was subjected to a citizen’s arrest after being observed taking photographs of the Baro River dam construction site, located in Gambella state. The trios were accused of being Egyptian spies and held for questioning. Days after their arrest, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi was quoted as saying he was monitoring the situation of the three Egyptians accused of espionage. “I knew about the arrest of three Egyptians in Ethiopia and we are following up the issue,” Fahmi told Egyptian newspaper Youm7. “We will announce all the details of the crisis within the next few hours.”

But perhaps unsurprisingly, further details failed to come forth. Authorities both in Ethiopia and Egypt have until now remained silent  on the arrest of the trio, identified by some Ethiopian based media outlets as Youssef al-Haj, Ismail Azeezi and Hassan Garay. The two countries have met on several occasions since then and the topic of the three Egyptians would have surely been brought up by now. But one thing is clear: there is no evidence to suggest that the trios are still in detention in Ethiopia. The fact that subsequent Nile talks have somehow been conducted in a less than hostile atmosphere ever since is most likely down to Ethiopia’s decision not to pursue espionage charges against the trio. Simply put, the trios are most likely released via backdoor negotiations. If so, it would arguably be in the best interests of both countries…

…for various reasons

More often than not, the government in Ethiopia struggles to reassure cautiously optimistic (and some pessimistic) Ethiopians that Egypt has seen the light and is in agreement with the principle of an Ethiopian mega dam on the Nile River. So, claims that the Egyptian government is taking covert actions on the ground dents the credibility of the Ethiopian government’s reassurance.

And on Egypt’s side, its government might suffer a drop in public approval ratings if Egyptians know that their intelligence agency, lauded as one of the most sophisticated in Africa, saw its personnel detained by local police somewhere in deep rural Ethiopia. This is, of course, assuming that the three men were indeed Egyptian spies. There is no way of independently substantiating the claims. But it is known that Egypt publicly lobbies for the release of its citizens detained or mistreated in a third country. (The recent detention by the Yemeni coastguard of Egyptian fishermen just over a month ago for allegedly entering Yemeni waters has seen high-level Egyptian publicly call for their release.) Egypt’s silence regarding the trio detained in Ethiopia, therefore, suggests that the three may have indeed been involved in something its officials would rather keep quiet.

Three more spies?

In November 2016, a month after Ethiopia declared the current state of emergency, three more Egyptians were arrested suspected of participating in covert activities for Egyptian intelligence. Ethiopian media named one of them as Taha Mansour, executive assistant manager at Radisson Blue Hotel in Addis Abeba. The remaining two were later on identified as businessmen Hany Al-Akkad and Hasan Ramadan Sweilam. The three have spent three months in an Ethiopian prison before being released on January 11^th and subsequently told to leave Ethiopia. According to reports, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry travelled to Addis and met with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to negotiate their release. Upon their release, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying their release “reflect that both sides are keen to preserve the gains that have been achieved on bilateral relations and bolster and develop such ties.”

Such infrequent but repeated incidents show that perhaps the accusations by the government in Ethiopia of Egypt’s intent to sponsor destabilizing agents within the country aren’t farfetched claims. Nevertheless, Ethiopia’s assertiveness in blaming Egypt for every incident of chaos and bloodshed that occurred in 2016 is, surely, too much of a stretch. After all, there was no involvement of Egyptian army in the killings of hundreds and the extra-judicial incarceration of thousands of protesters by Ethiopia’s security forces. Ethiopians know that the actions of the country’s security apparatus, not Egypt’s supposed involvement, aggravated the situation tenfold. Egypt cannot be held responsible for the murderous instincts and the disastrous actions of Ethiopia’s police force and the army.

Logic is the victim

But Ethiopia wouldn’t abide by this logic. Clearly irritated, it launched a diplomatic charm offensive that seemed to have, among its core objectives, the antagonization of Egypt.

On the 21^st of November, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a two day state visit. He met with Saudi monarch Salman Bin Abdulaziz. Some media reports claim that PM Hailemariam’s visit had more to do with his concern over Saudi Arabia’s alleged use of the Eritrean naval base in Assab to facilitate its military operations against the Houthis in Yemen.

Eritrea’s attempt to salvage any sort of diplomatic legitimacy is a constant source of dismay in Addis Abeba and Egypt likely wants it to stay that way. But Saudis’ success in gaining a foothold in the region is obviously bad news for Egypt; Saudi Arabia and Egypt maintain rocky diplomatic relations, due in some part to Egypt’s support for the Assad regime in Syria.

So, Ethiopia’s abrupt diplomatic cuddle session with the Saudis may have been a sore point for Egypt. Two weeks later, on December 4^th– 6^th the Egyptian National Water Research Center held a planned conference in Cairo on ‘Water Resources Management’. Among the topics chosen for discussion was one on “improving” the 2010 Entebbe Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).  Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda and Tanzania (later on joined by Burundi) have signed the agreement expressing their common dissatisfaction with the historical allocation of the Nile water and desire to use more of the waters. (Unsurprisingly, Egypt had always been strongly opposed to the CFA).

The Cairo conference was attended by water and irrigation ministers from Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda, who also met with al-Sisi. Ethiopia was the conspicuous absentee. True, the conference was previously planned and participants had booked flights to Cairo in advance. But many are convinced that the decision to disinvite Ethiopia was made in the aftermath of its Prime Minister’s journey to Riyadh.  Egypt may have tried to use this conference as a tool to drive a wedge between Ethiopia and the other upper riparian states signatory to the CFA. If so, Egypt is up for a monumental disappointment. The other states have signed the CFA not worried about Ethiopia’s future diplomatic maneuvering, but out of disdain for Egypt’s hitherto uncontested and unjustified used of the Nile waters.

Add fuel to the fire

If Egyptian authorities were unhappy about a mere visit to the Saudi capital by an Ethiopian Prime Minister, it is probably because they didn’t see what else was on the cards. In a less than subtle show of defiance, Ethiopian government officials gave a high level Saudi delegation a tour of GERD’s construction site on the 18^th of December, where by, according to local media reports, members of the Saudi ministries of energy, finance and industry reiterated their government’s desire to invest in the yet to be completed project. Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu also said the Saudi government had shown interest in importing energy from Ethiopia once the 6,000 megawatt dam is up and running.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia already suffer from a long standing rocky relation over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir. So it comes as no surprise that in Egypt, Saudis’ incursion into the Ethiopian scene received sharp belittles as a comment from Mohamed Ali Khayr, a renowned political commentator shows: “Egypt is not obliged to continue to contain its reactions towards Saudi Arabia. Any interference in the GERD project implies a direct threat to Egypt’s national security.”

In came the Qatari twist

On December 19^th, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani traveled to Addis Abeba where he met with Ethiopian leaders and discussed joint efforts to enhance bilateral ties. The next day, Sheikh Mohammed and his Ethiopian counterpart Workneh Gebeyehu signed 11 different agreements and treaties in investment, infrastructure and tourism.

Qatar is among several of Egypt’s regional rivals. Like Saudi Arabia, Qatar has had strained relations due to, among other things, Qatari news network Al Jazeera’s constant criticism of Egyptian government policies. The news network is banned in Egypt, and its journalists are a constant in Egypt’s prisons.

But, unlike the Saudi officials’ tour of the GERD site, Ethiopia’s ties with Qatar was not something Egyptians were too worried about. That was until comments by Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu surfaced just a week after his Qatari counterpart visited Ethiopia.  Speaking at a press conference in Khartoum, Workneh Gebeyehu hinted that agreements between Ethiopia and Qatar may include a Qatari endorsement of Ethiopia’s Nile River position. “We believe in exchanging interests and benefits between the Nile Basin countries and we do not intend to harm any of those countries. Ethiopia has fertile soil and the Gulf countries, especially Qatar and the UAE, have the money and want to invest their money,” Workneh told reporters in the Sudanese capital.

Judging from this turn of event, a layman would understand that Egypt is being diplomatically left in the cold as of late. Despite the official rhetoric between Ethiopia and Egypt on the importance of diplomacy to jointly tackle potential source of anxiety over the GERD, Ethiopia has taken things to a whole new level: coercing countries considered to have turbulent diplomatic relations with Egypt to get involved. This may be a poorly calculated move.

True, it is in Ethiopia’s best interests to keep all concerned parties at the negotiating table. But if it wants to portray the GERD as an inclusive project, Ethiopian officials should encourage healthy cooperation among riparian states, including Egypt. Openly cajoling non African state actors like Saudi Arabia and Qatar to get behind the GERD only serves to feed a paranoid Egypt to turn into an unnecessary self defense approach.  Diplomacy is one thing, parading officials from Egypt’s less friendly countries on state television is plain foolhardy.

A justified “dirty deal”?

Claims of a “dirty deal” between South Sudan and Egypt aren’t as premeditated as the media made it out to be. Clearly, Egypt is feeling it is under a geopolitical attack. To avoid being left in the diplomatic cold, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is counterattacking but he is less likely to succeed in turning South Sudan, a country which owes its birth to Ethiopia, into a hub of anti-Ethiopian proxy ground. Plus, lest we forget, Egypt was one of the most vocal opponents of South Sudanese independence. Nowhere is this more glaring than how officials both from Ethiopia and South Sudan scrambled to rebuke unverified report first dispatched by a pro-Ethiopian government news media, of a diplomatic breakup between the two countries.

Egypt, for obvious reasons, is seeking a much more assertive presence in South Sudan. Its officials have already made clear their intentions to deploy a military force in South Sudan. Its move to sign an agreement with South Sudanese officials to boost military ties in 2014 has raised suspicions among South Sudan rebel groups who accuse Egypt of taking part in the civil war alongside Kiir’s military, something Egypt vehemently denies.

Following the UN Security Council’s resolution to deploy 4,000 odd regional protection forces in Juba, Egypt has increased its efforts to make its presence felt by asking to contribut troops for the planned regional protection force. Strategically, Egypt would have a lot to gain with the deployment of its military personnel to Juba: it would no longer have to maintain a degree of secrecy over its prior military presence and can operate under the auspices of Egyptian intelligence, with the UN badge legitimizing their presence. The “dirty deal” is most likely Egypt’s lobbying for South Sudanese endorsement of its ambition to deploy its troops.

Beyond the cunning arm twists

As the stubborn nature of Nile politics unravels in the latest round of behind-the-scenes wrangling, one cannot help but notice how fragile previous pacts of Nile cooperation, often paid for by donor money, are. It was only a couple of years ago that PM Hailemariam Desalegn, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Omar Al-Bashir held hands in triumph at an event in Khartoum celebrating their newly signed agreement to sort out their differences. Now, that seems a long time ago.

Beyond the cunning arm twists and turns, the leaders of all countries should quickly step out of their self-made bubbles and undo the damages done by their diplomatic flash floods and put what matters the most at the center stage: the well-being of the Nile River itself and the millions of people it affects. Climate change is identified as the most pressing matter threatening the future the Nile River and no one is talking about it. It is crucial that everyone returns to the negotiating table and continues searching for a common solution. Anything less would be potentially disastrous and a losing game for every country.

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Free Media as the Social Determinants of Health: The case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia

By Begna Fufa Dugassa, Ph.D
Toronto Public Health, Toronto, Canada

Abstract

Background: For over a hundred thirty years, consecutive Ethiopian regimes have denied the Oromo people the right to develop their own free media. In this paper I explore how this denial has affected the development of public health conditions in Oromia.

Methods: Using the “upstream” public health metaphor as the framework of thinking, in this paper I explore how the denial of free media has hindered the development of better public health conditions.

Reclaiming Oromo Indigenous Organizational Structures and Fostering Supportive Environments for Health

Findings: Although media and public health are distinct social organizations, many of their functions overlap, with the former significantly supporting the development of the latter. Media informs, educates, entertains, molds opinion, advocates, provides a framework of thinking, connects people and ideas, and records events. The foundation of public health rests on the study of risks to population health and identifying health promotion as well as disease prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary) tools. Media facilitates knowledge construction and its dissemination. It supports the efforts societies make in establishing and maintaining the social conditions that will ensure the best public health outcomes possible.

Colonial Trauma, Community Resiliency and Community Health Development

Conclusions: Since media facilitates knowledge construction and knowledge dissemination, it can help produce knowledgeable and critical citizens who are equipped with problem-solving skills. Denying the Oromo people the right to develop their own free media is hindering them from having people with skills who are critically needed in transforming their society and developing better public health conditions.

Read full report The case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia

Contact address: began.dugassa@gmail.com

What Right do the Oromo people have to Finfinne?

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Lemma Megersa calls for Oromo unity and economic revolution

Lemma Megersa

Editors note: This is a word-for-word translation of a recent speech by the President of Oromia Regional State, Mr. Lemma Megersa. The 16-minute speech in Afaan Oromo (link below) was apparently broadcast on the state-run Oromiya TV. Read OPride’s commentary on his speech here: 

Lammaa Magarsaa: A sweet-talking lackey or a genuine man of the people?

(OPride) — Before we blame others, we have to ask ourselves: what were and are our internal problems? We exposed ourselves to our adversaries. This is why we remained colonized for so long. There is no other reason as to why colonization came to fruition on our backs. Our biggest challenge, more than anything, is still getting organized. Our biggest homework, the biggest task for our people today, is to get organized. Unity. Not unity in name only but truly coming together from our hearts and minds. Aren’t honey bees a type of insect? But what is it that they are most admired for? Their unity. The organized swarm (colony) has a leader. They follow that leader and make sweet honey. In unity, there is a strength. Without the colony, scattered honey bees are just like any other fly. And anyone can squash a fly. Similarly, a society that’s not organized – whose minds and hearts are divided – cannot win. It is always exposed to danger. It has no agency.

This generation must leave behind the fixation on what others did unto us. We don’t need to count past abuses that were meted out to us. We need to start looking inward and start addressing our own internal problems. Herein lies the solution to our challenges: Lack of unity and our inability to get organized. This is crucial if we are to change our people’s history, the Oromo people’s history, and our region’s history.

Oromo nationalism is the foundation of everything. Our nationalism is our driving force (our motor). It is our pillar. It doesn’t matter if we are numerous, educated or rich. Those things will have no use without Oromo nationalism. The tribalism that we despise today wasn’t created with bad intentions. When we say Mr. X’s tribe, we have to also recognize that it is a form of social organization. It is a survival mechanism. Tribes come together to repel and defend itself against external aggression. To support and back each other up as needed. Tribalism is not only about blood (lineage) relations. It is a form of protection. Survival. We need this motor that unites us – Oromo nationalism – in order to move forward together and to survive. We must understand this.

Oromo nationalism, however, need to safeguard against two ills: The first is servitude/colonization. More than what others have done unto us, there are so many among us who don’t believe in our own ability to accomplish certain things. There are countless Oromos who are still asleep. There are so many who oppose and stand in the way of our vision asking such questions as “look at our main agenda? Can the Oromos really accomplish these goals? Are we really that capable?”

This is a colonial mentality. A liberated mind is worth more than anything else. Once a human mind is contaminated with a colonial virus, you can’t cleanse (decolonize it) by simply dipping it into the well of knowledge or wealth. But only a decolonized mind can bring about real change. We need to wage a serious struggle to reverse this. This is because there are so many Oromos who still don’t believe we can win or reach the feats of success achieved by others. How many of us release this “negative energy” day in and day out to demoralize each other? You, the young people, must protect each other from such maladies. This is my biggest message to you.

The other thing is, in this country, it is a problem to say this or that doesn’t concern me, take oneself out and stay on the peripheries. Whether one likes it or not, Oromos will determine the fate and future of this country, Ethiopia itself. Let alone development, Ethiopia cannot continue to exist as a country without Oromos (full) participation and without affording the Oromo people their fair share. We have to accept this. We have to believe in this fact in order to determine and demand our share. If we took ourselves out and stay on the margins and allow others divvy up our resources, what are we going to claim?

TPLF is worried about “territorial integrity” of Ethiopia. Wow!

When we say we’ll rally around Oromo nationalism to move forward, we have to safeguard against these two tendencies. If we balance these two issues, guided by the light of Oromo nationalism as a motor and we maintain our unity, there is not a change that we can’t bring about in this country.

The youth are well positioned to do this. In the past, we blamed illiteracy for our predicament. But today we are educated. All of you are educated. Even if we aren’t more educated than others, we have knowledge that’s sufficient to help us tackle our own challenges. One thing that makes all of us proud is that we have created a proudly nationalist generation. A generation that is educated and one that can fight for its rights.

We have created a generation that doesn’t bow down to anyone. A generation that is already making history. A generation that has already changed the meaning of one of our forefathers’ proverbs: You escape from tough times and a rock thrown at you by lying low. It is simply impossible to do so in this day and age. Lying low could mean never getting back up. Nowadays you can only escape by having a plan on how to fight whatever may be thrown at you. That there is a generation which is ready to change this history gives us hope.

Our youth, while unemployed, should not lose faith. They are a force for change. Our people, our society and all of us are putting our hopes on the youth. This force should realize that they are no longer facing darkness but light. They must confront today’s  challenges head on. The world is a river full of problems. Only those who work hard can win in this world. One cannot win by sitting idly and staring at the problems of the world. In fact, the longer we sit around, the more difficult our problems will get. And our problems won’t suddenly disappear. We shouldn’t be fooled on this. It is a mistake to think that the world will welcome us by laying out green grass (like red carpet?) on the floor. We are instead confronted with multiple challenges. Like all people, we must be prepared to meet those challenges head on and overcome them.

You should prepare yourself knowing that you are the answer to our people’s problems. You should believe in your ability to take over the reins of this country and lead it. No one else is prepared or better positioned to do this. The future is in your hands. Yesterday, those of us who are now in the position of leadership looked up to others who came before us. It is our turn now. Tomorrow will be yours. The key here is not to simply take over the reins of power. But to make history with it whenever we are in that position whether the power lasts a year, an hour or a few months in our hands.

Open Letter to Oromos Who Are Still Under Mental Slavery

Today is our gift. I have to work hard today to seize that opportunity. There is nothing that can be saved for tomorrow. We have to do all in our power today to confront tomorrow’s challenges. Especially those of us, the younger generation, who have both historical and generational responsibility, must work hard. I believe all of us, including you and the Oromo people, must start a major revolution in Oromia. An economic revolution. We should be thinking day and night about economic empowerment. We should be dreaming about making money. A society that is not economically empowered will become a servant to others. Only numbers. It cannot get ahead. An economically disempowered society will be pushed around easily by those who have money. There is no shortcut to success in this world. We must work hard and do so tirelessly to get ahead in life. That will be the source of our freedom. Our strength. We have to be economically strong. Simply debating political ideologies won’t change our lot.

Year after year – now for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years – we have been blaming narrow nationalism, rent seeking, good governance and chauvinism for our predicament. How much longer should we continue to talk about this? If it is not filling our food storage or improving our bottom line, what good is the talk going to do for us? No use. This is why I say each and every one of us should focus on the economy. Those who can farm should do so. Others can be merchants. From now on, as Oromia Regional Government, we have been asleep, we should wake up and start an economic revolution. We have to change past history by becoming each other’s strength. We have to act and work like people who bear historical and generational responsibility. This is the only solution to our problems. We should understand this and work together. As a party and as a regional government, we are ready to partner with you. The agenda of the youth will always be our agenda. We must not cripple or fail a generation that will tomorrow take over the reins of this country. Like we fought to empower the youth with education, we must ensure that they are also economically empowered and are proud of their identities. We have to work hard to ensure that the youth are prepared to lead our communities, our state, and our country.

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Identity Crisis as the way to Slavery: the case of Beneyam M. and its Implicative Woe for OPDOs [ለካስ አርቲፊሻል ሰዎች አሉ?]

Falmataa Sabaa (PhD)

Thanks to ZeHabesha.com and its guest named Ayalew Mengesha that I learn about possible existence of artificial human being. The 1፡17፡46 minute long video entitled “TPLF Exposed Again by Ayalew Mengesha” discusses identity related crises and its manipulation for security functions. The x-member of the Tigrai People Liberation Front led government of Ethiopia’s security apparatus pretends himself as a person being from Amhara nation and illustrates his practical experience as to how the identify crisis of person named Deribew Demelash’s (ደርበው ደምመላሽ) spying role negatively affected Amhara nation. He also discusses Mr. Beneyam Mamushet and many more alike fall captive of identity crises and hence obliged to serve TPLF as a maiden slave.

Ayalew Mengesha says “ቢንያም ማሙሸት የሚባል የኦፕሬሽን መምርያ ሀላፊ ባሌ የተወለደ ልጅ ነው፡፡ ኦሮሚኛ ይችላል፡፡ አማርኛንም አቀላጥፎ ነው የሚናገረው፡፡ ይኸ ሰው ኦሮሞ ሲያገኝ እኔ እኮ አሮሞ ነኝ ብሎ ነው የሚቀርበው፡፡ አማራ ሲያገኝ እኔ አማራ ነኝ ይላል፡፡ ትግሬ ሲያገኝ ትግርኛ መናገር አይችልም ግን ያገባት አንዲት ትግራይ ልጅ የሆነች የመከላካይ ሰራዊት አባል ናት እና በሚሰቴ ደግሞ ትግሬ ነኝ ይላል፡፡ እና ምን ያህል ስብዕናው የተጎዳ ህብረተሰብ እንደሚሰበስብ ደህንነት ተቋሙ ማየት ይቻላል፡፡ በብሄራዊ ማንነቱ የማይኮራና አንዱን ብሄራዊ ማንነቱን ለመግለጽ የተቸገረ ተራ አርቲፊሻል ስብዕና ፡፡  Oh, woe unto those who says that they have lost their identity to Ethiopia, an imaginary, never materialized ideal entity (based on the fraudulent assertion of Prof. Larebo).

There is one point outright and must be ”appreciated” in connection to this misery move of TPLF. The TPLF as colonial power in Oromia is doing its perfectly designed job for the very purpose of its establishment to meet its ultimatum before it retracts to its own home. The funny thing is probably, a person who pretends as Amhara fails to remember the previous hegemony of Amhara ruling government of Ethiopia which ended after fall of Mengistu H/Mariam. Even Mengistu himself, Haileselassie and many others of their loyal were mixed blood in crises of identity and thus forced to serve the then alien governments of Amhara in Oromia.

Nevertheless, the present colonial power is unique in that it officially declared nationalism is on board and yet blunt individuals proud of their nation to enslave them. I can say, based on intelligent guess, that Beneyam Mamushet could be an Amhara. The Amhara x-security officer describes Beneyam Mamushet saying “born in Bale”. This is key phrase because Amharas when asked their nation they tell where they were born. They never immediately tell their nation to unfamiliar interviewer. Therefore, the question is, why Beneyam Mamushet serves a colonial power in Oromia which is also an alien for his own Amhara nation.

Here you go! Once again, ESAT attacks the great Oromo nation

It is possible one can state multiple possible scenarios but the short and straight forward is that TPLF is not only using mixed blood of identity crises criteria to recruit trustworthy persons who can effectively serve its government. TPLF, obviously, uses individuals of Amhara nation and others to spy Oromian and the like. Likewise TPLF uses minority based individuals (who might not go nowhere apart from being loyal) for spying and to hold front desk of key government positions. Hence my message to Mamushet and alike Amhara spy in Oromia is don’t serve our common enemy who is in Oromia for tactical reasons only. Oromo and Amhara nations are strategically tied.

When it comes to how Oromo understands the barbaric security apparatus of colonial regime in Oromia, TPLF’s misery is well established fact. TPLF stood on Oromia soil using war captive mixed bloods and humiliated persons with identity crisis as torch. The partly Oromo individuals in OPDO and alien members of it knew nothing about the culture: norms and values, and inborn identity of Oromo except that they were once lived in Oromia and hence used that knowledge as an opportunity to locate strategic military sites to TPLF. For example, as recently quoted in Gaaddisa Dhugaa program, OPDOs had no idea on Afaan Oromo alphabet and used to ask why OLF uses English langue (not Afaan Oromo) when is comes to written Oromo communication. But the fact was OLF and the Oromos use Oromo Alphabet (qubee Afaan Oromo) to communicate in written Oromo language. Persons who used to ask such primitive question might include Kuma Demeksa (Oromo adopted tiger), Abba Duula (surrendered mixed blood), late Alemayehu Atomsa (50% Amhara mixed blood), Muktar Kedir (opportunist mixed blood), Driba Kuma (son in-law of Tigre), Dina Mufti (humiliated Oromo), Workineh Gebeyehu (Tigre but self adopted to Oromo), and many more senior OPDO officials. All of these and others alike are inevitably in identity crises playing pendulum role in Ethiopian empire’s politics. I also forsee many individuals of PG7 and ESAT activist share the feature. They seem to have nothing to claim of their own but might do as slave zeal to do the will of its own master. That is all for a persons in identity crises!

Let me connect my brief analysis to the one currently in office of OPDO’s presidium. Mr. Lemma Megersa recently called for Oromo unity and economic revolution in Oromia. In principle, his speech is flawless to me. It is a speech what any one of nationalist Oromos could say if we intend to say so. Nevertheless, background of Mr. Lemma is rooted in the domain of TPLF spies’ kit qualifying the identity crisis criteria one must fulfill to cling to that position. So if we are sure of his position and the criteria leading to that position, why not we predict the possible consequence of his current speech? Mr. Lemma Megersa being in the category of service by humiliated person, how come he makes such novel speech” Or was it for deception of Oromo nation? Is there sweeter tongue than that of security persons? As matter of this fact and previous novel speech of other pretenders, nothing valuable we expect of him unless he would revolt on his masters and immediately show us practically. After all, wasn’t Lemma Megersa a while before his current speech said to demarcate Oromia boundary in five years time and allowing Oromos to die as the hand of insergwent TPLF messengers? Why five years? By then he would leave office and at this time he has no authoruity to protect the people whom he claims to administer. Period!

Finally I would like to appreciate Ayalew Mengesha who shared us the information as the one insider of the TPLF’s security apparatus. I also acknowledge his effort to favor his nation. I can guess he might be one of the native pan-Ethiopianists who cares most for his nation. But I need to ask him if he did unlawfully heart Oromos for being Oromo using his x-post. In conclusion, I say it is up to other nations to defend themselves from the evil regime in their native country per se. Therefore, I have to prophesy woe to Oromo members of OPDO if they would never wake up and join their hero Oromo brothers to defend their people and their native country Oromia. As for Oromo nation we are aware of the misery and hence fighting both the residues of the past and the bubbles of the present colonial regimes. The Bible advise us to be curious when dealing with spies. It say: \”And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty … they might bring us into bondage: (Gal 2:4). The inevitable remedy is that “The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out” (Pro 10:31).

Enjoy,

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Insecurity in Yemen threatens incoming refugees and migrants

UNHCR launches campaign to highlight dangers to thousands of people – most from Ethiopia and Somalia – who continue head to Yemen despite the raging conflict.

By: UNHCR staff

The bodies of Somalis, Ethiopians and Sudanese washed up on the beaches of Belhaf, Yemen, in this 2006 file photo. © UNHCR/SHS

SANA’A, Yemen (UNHCR) – Mention to someone the words “Yemen” and “refugees” and they will certainly have in mind people fleeing the war-torn state. Yemen is a country that has been ravaged by fighting since 2015, and the situation there has only worsened as third parties have contributed to that civil war.

So it is perhaps surprising that while thousands of people are indeed fleeing Yemen to the Horn of Africa (some 87,000 last year), more people still are going the other direction, with more than 117,000 reckoned to have traveled across the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea into this place of insecurity last year alone.

Since 2013, nearly 290,000 refugees and migrants have landed on the Yemeni coast. Nearly 80 per cent of these were Ethiopians, and most of the rest Somalis. Most journey to Yemen in the hope of using it as a transit point, while others look to stay in Yemen, often unaware of the dangers.

“We must not allow unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers to lure people into risks and dangers where they hope to find protection.”

The most recent figures represent a steady increase in irregular movements from Africa to Yemen – up from 65,000 in 2013, 91,600 in 2014 and 92,500 in 2015 respectively. And this notwithstanding a worsening environment in Yemen, where a full-scale war has been ongoing since 2015.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, launched a campaign today to raise awareness of the dangers faced by those crossing to and through Yemen. These range from death at sea to assault, extortion and abuse by criminal networks, as well as the hazards stemming from the war in Yemen itself, which has made fully four-fifths of the population dependent on humanitarian aid.

UNHCR kicked off the campaign with the help of prominent musicians from the region – led by singing star and former refugee Maryam Mursal – who created a song and video titled “Dangerous Crossings” – with key messages to make people think very carefully before deciding to cross to Yemen.

Yemen: “Dangerous Crossings” trailer

“We want to empower refugees to take informed decisions about their future,” says Volker Türk, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection. “Those who decide to flee need to know which dangers lie ahead. We must not allow unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers to lure people into risks and dangers where they hope to find protection.”

UNHCR has received reports of physical and sexual abuse, deprivation of food and water, abduction, extortion, torture and forced labour by smugglers and criminal networks. There has also been an increase in arrests, detention and forced returns.

Women – who account for roughly a third of the refugees and migrants from Somalia and 13 per cent of those from Ethiopia – are particularly at risk, as they may be targets of sexual violence and at risk of being trafficked. Figures from partner agencies monitoring the Yemeni shoreline suggest that around a quarter of those travelling to Yemen are children.

Smugglers frequently cast passengers out to sea short of the coast. A total of 446 people were reckoned to have been killed or gone missing over the previous three years out of the thousands of refugees and migrants making the journey. It is only reasonable to suppose these figures understate the actual number of deaths, since it is difficult for UNHCR and its partners to operate in what is a war zone.

“They injured me so badly and I couldn’t even get any medical treatment… I am sick, hungry and miserable here.”

“There is nothing here for me and life is very dangerous,” says an Ethiopian woman who made the trip. “I was beaten up badly last month by other people who were looking for money and they accused me of stealing. They injured me so badly and I couldn’t even get any medical treatment. I just had to wait for the wounds to heal by themselves and they still haven’t healed. I am sick, hungry and miserable here.”

The core of the problem is that it is very difficult to provide assistance to those who need it in a place that is as dangerous as Yemen. For while the central mandate of UNHCR is to protect refugees, “safety” is a misnomer within a country at war. The operational capacity of the agency is severely limited by the lack of security, both for its personnel and partners and for those whom it would want to help.

Almost 19 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The difficulty of establishing safety nets for refugees and migrants within an environment that is so insecure is part of the reason that UNHCR has for a long time warned of the dangers of people voyaging to Yemen.

Reports suggest that while the journey may cost somewhere between US$300 and US$500, the reality is that people on the move stand to lose much more from extortion, with stories abounding of refugees and migrants being kidnapped and ransoms demanded of their families.

It is clear that a great number of those who undertake the journey to Yemen are not aware of the dangers they face. Smuggling networks downplay the perils and threats that people moving irregularly face and those who survive the ordeal frequently fail to feed back home the full picture of what they went through. UNHCR is committed to encouraging greater awareness of these risks.

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A state crackdown has silenced ethnic Oromo people in Ethiopia, but grievances over land and rights, and a lack of political options, could reignite protests

Oromo people stage a protest against the government near the Hora Lake at Debre Zeyit. Photograph: Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

By William Davison in Guder

(The Guardian) — In a muted show of defiance near Ethiopia’s capital city, a tall farmer glanced around before furtively crossing his arms below his waist to make the Oromo people’s resistance symbol.

Ethiopia’s government outlawed the gesture made famous by Olympic men’s marathon silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa – who formed the “X” above his head at last year’s Rio games – when it enacted a draconian state of emergency in October in an attempt to stem 11 months of protests. Although that decree has suppressed unrest, the farmer thinks demonstrations will start anew.

“The solution is the government has to come with true democracy. The people are waiting until the state of emergency is over and then people are ready to begin to protest,” he said.

While the emergency has led to at least 25,000 people being detained, security forces aren’t visible on roads flanked by fields with workers wielding curved sickles to harvest crops. Beyond that seeming normality, there is pervasive discontent with authorities accused of responding to claims of ethnic marginalisation by intensifying repression.

“The protests will come again because the government is not responding to the demands of the people in the right way,” said another young Oromo man in Ejere town. Like others, he answered via a translator in the Oromo language, and asked for his views to be kept anonymous.

Farmers in the restive West Shewa district of Oromia dismissed the political response so far, which has amounted to replacing regional leaders. Despite positive noises from the new Oromia president, many seek a wholesale change of government. “People need new faces and a new system,” the Ejere man said.

Longstanding complaints by the Oromo about state exploitation coalesced around opposition to a metropolitan development plan in November 2015. In January the government suspended the blueprint for the integrated development of Addis Ababa with surrounding Oromo areas, but that didn’t stem the revolt. Some demonstrations were peaceful; others involved torching investments and government offices. Security forces gunned down as many as 600 protesters, according to the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia.

Now the demands are less policy-oriented due to outrage over repression. Allegations of ethnic bias are prevalent, though it is Oromo officials who are culpable for local failings. The claims centre on a view that the Tigrayan ethnic group benefit disproportionately from a system said to be controlled by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which founded a coalition that has ruled the country since 1991. Activists, many of whom are based abroad, also allege that Ethiopia’s territorial expansion in the late 19th century dispossessed Oromo, who at roughly 35 million people-strong nonetheless remain Ethiopia’s largest community.

Under a multinational federal system introduced in 1995, the Oromo group runs its own region, but people complain the resource-rich state is economically exploited, and their leaders subservient to the TPLF in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). “There’s an Oromo saying: what the husband says, the wife cannot change,” said another opponent apropos of the political dynamic.

Land, which is state-owned in Ethiopia, is a particularly emotive issue. An aggressive, government-driven approach to development, combined with corrupt officials and investors, led to Oromo families losing farmland without receiving adequate compensation over the past two decades, particularly on the sought-after fringes of the capital.

Political unrest simmering in Ethiopia despite lethal crackdown

Around Guder town, 80 miles (130km) west of Addis Ababa, farmers believe Oromo officials enriched themselves by selling plots on the edge of town to developers and using the proceeds to build houses near the capital. One man interviewed can’t give a specific example of an unfair eviction near Guder, but he’s worried about the trend. “People have a fear about what happened in the Addis Ababa area,” he said.

Other common concerns are mundane, and acknowledged as legitimate by officials: people want an improved road, or better supplies of water and electricity. Despite evident progress, Ethiopia, where the population of close to 100 million is Africa’s second largest, still lies 174th out of 188 countries on the UN’s 2015 human development index, below South Sudan and Afghanistan.

The evolving and multi-layered grievances are an acute test for the government, as well as a conundrum for major donors, such as the UK’s Department for International Development, which remains silent on the EPRDF’s repression as it lauds its development record. While efforts to improve public services, create jobs and reduce corruption may make headway, there’s little chance of the desired systemic reform.

That was reinforced by the arrest in November of Merera Gudina, the most high-profile Oromo opposition leader not in jail or abroad. He was accused of breaking emergency rules by communicating with a banned nationalist opposition leader at a European parliament hearing in Brussels.

Across West Shewa, locals said there had not yet been any changes in community leaders and the government hadn’t reached out to discuss the problems with them. Some said they were no longer interested in what officials had to say.

In Addis Ababa, the federal communications minister, Negeri Lencho, an Oromo professor of journalism, offers a different view. “The change belongs to the people. The reform belongs to the people. The reform includes increasing awareness of people to defend their interests,” he said.

Despite this gulf between officials and public, serious dialogue is unlikely, according to Zelalem Kibret, an Ethiopian blogger who was arrested in 2014 and is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University.

“The government will not go for any type of concession while the opposing force is weak. The activists also seem unwilling, since they are aimed at ousting the regime. I think the brutality that was unleashed by the regime for the last 12 months pushed every moderate voice to the fringe,” he said.

If the movement were to opt for incremental gains through the ballot box, opposition parties would have to compete in local elections scheduled for 2018, but that presents formidable political and logistical obstacles. As well as holding all seats in the federal parliament and regional chambers, the four-party EPRDF and allied organisations occupy all of up to 100 seats on each one of more than 18,000 village councils, and also on roughly 750 larger administrations, said Zelalem. With opposition leaders and activists exiled, imprisoned, or fearing arrest, already weak parties are in no shape to loosen the coalition’s hold.

“The EPRDF is still the only strong political force in Ethiopia. I doubt the protesters have any solid bargaining power other than sporadic demonstrations that are likely to be quashed easily. It is an impasse. Most probably the regime will stay in power for many years,” Zelalem said.

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Ethiopian spy is the most hated person in Somalia

By Dahir Alasow

“General Gabre”, real name Hailu Gabre

Somalia (Waagacusub) – Somali elected president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmaajo” was requested by many people and political groups to declare Ethiopian secret service official Hailu Gabre persona non grata for intermingling in the internal affairs of Somalia and masterminding renewed hostilities.

“The spy, Gabre, is rearming former warlords to foil the newly elected Somali president,” Ahmed Daud Ibrahim who is a local district official in Medina district said.

“Gabre is always working against the peace in Somalia because violence is the best chance for him to sell weapons,” he said.

The officer who falsely calls himself  as General Gabre is a spy committed to serve only the interest of few Tigre ruling tribe of Ethiopian.

He is highly paid for his services by Somali  politicians who want to come to power through corruption, violence  and intimidation.

But he attracted extreme antipathy of those who care about Somalia.

After Invasion, Ethiopia Is the Cause of Our Instability – Somalis Say

“Everybody in Somalia knows Gabre is a weapons dealer, corrupt and saboteur,” Ahmed Tubako, a shop owner in Mogadishu said.

“He is part of the so called international community but Gabre is a cancer in the national interest of Somalia.” said Tabako.

“General Gabre” the most corrupt Ethiopian officer in Somalia

Maryan Awale, elementary school teacher, warned that if the new president did not expel Gabre from our country then no progress will be made to rebuild Somalia.

“You can’t avoid sickness if you have bacteria in your food or or environment at home,” says Maryan who is 36 years old mother.

“Gabre is a combination of bacteria and virus that harm the nerve of our politics ,” she said by adding ” he is the most hated person in Somalia.”

Somali president was elected by overwhelming vote on Wednesday  in Mogadishu to replace president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud who was rejected for corruption and misrule.

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FILE – A ship docks at the port in Berbera, Somaliland, May 17, 2015.

WASHINGTON (VOA News) — The parliament of the break-away republic of Somaliland has overwhelming approved a deal to allow the United Arab Emirates to establish an air and naval base in the port town of Berbera.

Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo presented the motion on Sunday to a joint session by both houses of the parliament, saying “it will attract investments, and it will not bring any harm to Somaliland or the region.”

A number of lawmakers angrily opposed the motion and shouted against the president before they were removed form parliament. The motion then passed with the support of 144 out of 151 lawmakers.

If signed, the deal gives the UAE a strong military foothold in the Horn of Africa.

The UAE had already secured a military base in the port of Assab in Eritrea. Observers say UAE plans to have a long-term military bases to monitor naval traffics in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

Somaliland’s Aviation Minister Farhan Adan Haybe said the deal is valid for 25 years, and after it expires the Somaliland government will “own the military base and all the investments made by UAE.”

“The base is on a lease, it can’t be used any other nation except the UAE and can’t be sub-leased,” the minister said.

FILE – Small boats and old wrecked ships litter the harbor of Berbera, Somaliland, Aug. 16, 2016. (J. Patinkin/VOA)

In return the UAE has agreed to implement in Somaliland various development projects, including modernizing highways.

The deal follows a $442-million agreement with a Dubai-based Company (DP World) to upgrade the port of Berbera. The deal signed in September will transform Berbera port into a major Red Sea shipping stop.

The UAE government is among various countries assisting Somalia’s regional administrations in their fight against al-Shabab militants.

Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, but no country has so far recognized its independence bid.

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This is our third and final piece regarding the Oromo Leadership Convention (OLC) that was held in Atlanta, GA, November 11-13, 2016. Our first article was written prior to the commencement of the OLC under the title “Questioning the Motives of the Atlanta Leadership Convention” and it addressed fundamental questions regarding the identity of the organizers and their motives, choice of meeting venue, and selection of participants. The second article was produced on the last day of the convention based on information that leaked out from the tightly controlled convention halls. Titled “The Atlanta Leadership Convention: A blessing in Disguise?” the second article exposed the hidden agenda of the organizers based on events that took place at the convention. In the current piece, we will attempt to present a comprehensive assessment of the OLC based on facts that we gathered from those who participated in the convention and other sources.

As we predicated in our second article, the organizers issued a press release declaring that the OLC “was successfully concluded after passing groundbreaking resolutions that affirm the unity of all Oromos.” We wish this phrase that was on the first paragraph of their press release was true. On the contrary, as we demonstrate below in details, the OLC threatened the unity of the Oromo people that was created by blood and bones of our people in Oromia. That is why it became necessary for us to present the facts to the Oromo people. In doing so, we hope that our informed people will sort out the facts from the fiction and seal the fissures created by the OLC and individuals with sinister motives. We fear that, if not sealed properly, unwanted elements can sneak into these fissures and attempt to crack it wide open.

We would like to make it clear that having different political views and opinions is natural for any society, and it is no exception for the Oromo. As such, we are not advocating for the kind of unity that results in all of us thinking alike and rallying behind a single organization. On the contrary, we believe that “group thinking” and blindly following a single party (or a single leader) is dangerous and limits progress in our struggle. What we are against instead is the political treachery that certain groups appear to be undertaking to hijack the gains that the Oromo people have made in their struggle over the years and divert its course for their own political ambitions. That, we will fight wholeheartedly.

The Atlanta Leadership Convention: A blessing in disguise?

In the next few paragraphs, we will discuss the genesis of the OLC, procedures that the organizers used for inviting convention participants, formats in which the meetings were conducted, the documents that were discussed at the convention, and the resort style meeting venue. We will then make our own recommendations for a way forward.

Genesis of the OLC.

As discussed in our first article, the idea of having a convention was initiated by a different group whose intention was to have a truly pan-Oromo conference. As discussions about the convention progressed, however, a group who organized the Atlanta convention saw an opportunity to use such a forum for their personal fame and political ambitions. It is in public records that a dozen Oromo nationalists and activists who started discussions about organizing an all-inclusive Oromo conference with the Atlanta OLC organizers quit and publicly opposed to it. We believe they quit because they understood the motives of the OLC organizers.

In the courses of our investigation, we have established solid links between some members of the OLC organizing group and current and former officials of the Ethiopian government. Here, we would like to make it crystal clear that we are not accusing everyone involved in organizing the OLC of association with the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia. It has been established, however, that a few of their members have irrefutable links to EPRDF thugs and have made several sponsored trips to Ethiopia over the years. Several pictures and videos that confirm these allegations have surfaced and are available on social media for anyone interested to see. It is, therefore, our legitimate right to question the motives of such groups.

Selection of participants.

Participants of the convention were selectively invited by the organizers. Although the names of the organizers were publicized later towards the conclusion of the convention, there was no word on how and who assigned them to conduct this monumental task. Assignment of the Organizing Committee is the start of the long journey but it has serious procedural flaws right from the start. We believe the organizers should have been appointed by some sort of council/board of representatives of Oromo civic and religious communities, professional organization and representatives of the various political forces. It is not difficult to create such a council in the diaspora as we have different communities already organized and operating. The organizers in turn should have exercised the utmost transparency in the way they choose participants.

The miscarriage of “Oromo Leadership Convention” in Atlanta (Revised)

Given that the convention intended to generate a working document to guide the Oromo national struggle, not to design political agenda for specific political group, the pool of participants should have been as broad as possible to adequately represent the entire diaspora Oromo. Anything short of that can leave holes for enemies to poke into and can be a source of misunderstanding among friends and comrades. Handpicking, or selectively inviting, participants could lead to personal preference, taste, motive and judgement. Thus, instead of representing the views and diverse positions of the society, the audience becomes collection of people with similar mindset and moral orientation. We believe this is a serious bias that can distort the outcome of any discussion. Not all views and perspectives have been given opportunity to be reflected upon. Outcomes of such discussions can lead to wrong projection of ideas that can potentially stir up controversies and that is what we have been witnessing at the Atlanta Leadership Convention and thereafter.
Meeting Format – Formation of the break-out group.

Although participants occasionally came together in one hall for some general directions, the bulk of discussions on the main agenda were conducted during the breakout sessions. For this, the participants were divided into a number of separate groups at random and each group moved to separate meeting rooms. In our opinion, this was done intentionally to make sure that the organizers get what they wanted. This format of meetings is not new and has been used extensively by various organizations to brainstorm ideas. If the purpose of the OLC was to brainstorm on ideas for the creation of the “Oromo freedom charter”, this would have been a non-issue. The purpose of the meeting was, however, to discuss on a prepared document and such a format should not have been used.

The format that the Organizers used is known as the Delphi technique and its purpose was to manipulate the participants to agree to a pre-determined ideas presented in the document. On the surface, it appears a democratic process as unsuspecting participants feel that they openly and democratically expressed their ideas. What most participants do not realize, however, is that the organizers have implanted their own agents as facilitators and participants in these groups. In fact, some of the implanted agents are trained to raise ideas in opposition to the ideas on the written documents so that the process is considered to be democratic. Ultimately, however, it is the facilitators that determine what to include and not to include in the final result of the group discussions. Even after each groups’ ideas are summarized, with all their shortcomings, it is up to the organizers to accept or reject the different ideas raised by various groups.

There are fundamental questions that we would like to ask the many innocent and patriotic Oromo participants of the Atlanta convention. How do you know what ideas were raised in the room next to yours? Did the facilitators really capture everything that was discussed in their group in such a short period of time? Better yet, how do you even know if your ideas and concerns have been included in the final document? If it is not included, how do you ask, or whom do you ask, why your concerns were not addressed? To answer this last question, you probably are not going to ask anyone because you will assume that your idea was excluded because it was in the minority. That is the fallacy of using such a format and these are the reasons why it should never have been used. The OLC organizers, however, knew exactly what they wanted and used the Delphi technique to achieve it.

Here is a statement that we received from one of the convention participants in its entirety. “The different groups were completely separated from each other to make sure that one group doesn’t interfere with that of the others. Facilitators or discussion leaders were assigned by organizers and so were the discussion topics, a prearranged top-down assignment. The discussion cannot be regarded as open and free as facilitators occasionally imposed their views. This technique is normally used for gathering constellation data but in that case participants need to be equally informed about the subject matter (issue under discussion) to facilitate full and informed participation. Also, the very short time allocated for discussion did not allow the supposedly communicative interaction amongst the groups that is used in this technique was absent. Lack of participation has undoubtedly affected the conduct of the discussion and may thus have undermined the expected consensus.”

This testimony from the participant fits perfectly well with the Delphi technique that we discussed in the preceding paragraph.
Discussion on the main topics.

Information that we received indicates that all participants were presented with a document entitled “Irbuu Oromoo: Chaartara Bilisummaa, Haqaa, fi Nagaa Oromoo”. According to comments given by participants during the discussion, this document resembles a constitution or charter of some kind, although its objective was not clearly provided or not mentioned properly in the introduction section or as preamble. There were several issues in the document that attracted the attention of the participants. Some of the key points are as follows:

• On the right to self-determination up to secession – The most audacious opinion forwarded by participants is on the section of the document that seems to undo the gains that the Oromo people have achieved thus far through their long and bitter struggle, i.e., the right to self-determination up to secession. On page 3, the document not only pledges allegiance to maintaining the unity of Ethiopia as it is but also downplays the universally accepted right of people to self-determination including secession. The motto of the Oromo people’s struggle both in the past and at present is to gain their inalienable right to self-determination up to secession and become masters of their destiny. This topic has been one of the contentious issues we had to face in the past that garnered conflict and social divide among freedom fighters and the Oromo society. Watering down this issue at the very time when our people have moved in unison to reclaim these rights is not only complete betrayal of our cause but also an insult to our brave men and women who have paid the ultimate price on our behalf.

One participant reported that “from the heated discussion at the Atlanta convention, it was clear that the facilitators were completely disconnected from the participants and no consensus was reached on this issue.” Our opinion regarding this issue is that it is the Oromo people who can decide how they want to live and the Atlanta convention organizers have no business or authority to decide it for them. The fact that they downplayed the universal rights of the Oromo people to self-determination up to secession, however, tells us what they stand for and what their motives are.

• On the issue of “Afaanii fi Haqa Afaanii” – Another blatant assault on achievements of the Oromo struggle came in this document on Oromo language. The document explicitly states that the administration and working language of all cities in Oromia will be determined by the will and power of the residents of these cities. This statement has similar negative effect with the now infamous Addis Ababa Master Plan and the impact it can have on Oromo identity, culture, natural resources, property right, history, and wellbeing is enormous. This document simply proposes to the Oromo people to give up every bit of right they have been fighting for and surrender. The 100 plus years of colonial rule has robbed Oromo people of their right to self-rule and the use of their language at all levels. The demography of Oromo cities and towns and the humiliation the Oromo people continue to suffer in their own cities are vivid testimonies to this. This document seems to declare that the Oromo people belong to rural areas and have no business in the cities. If we follow the logic that this document proposes and hold referendum on official language and administration of Oromo cities, it is clear what the outcome will be. The document not only promotes and endorses tyranny against the Oromo people but also takes away the few rights that they achieved through their blood. Of course, true nationalists will never allow this to happen.

• On “Raggaasisa Tokkummaa Oromootifii Hawwii Egeree Sabaa Oromoo”- This topic discusses the concepts and beliefs of the Oromo society regarding some major social issues such as Gadaa administration, supremacy of the law, equality, the peace keeping role, conflict resolution, security, safety, and wellbeing of the Oromo society. These are traditional values of the Oromo people that still exist in the minds of the Oromo people. While the issues are well laid out, the document does not provide the tools or powers used to keep and enforce them. There are no comments given about the role of institutions such as the judiciary system, policing power, peace keeping forces, and institutions of public safety while the document attempted to perform as a legal document.

• On the issue of financial support – According to sources within the meeting halls, another controversial topic discussed during the meeting was the issue related to providing financial support to the family of the victims of TPLF genocide. To express solidarity with everyone affected by the ongoing struggle would be a blessed undertaking. Based on presentations by various Oromo intellectuals and experts in the recent past, support for our people affected by the brutal regime can be provided in two ways, people based support and issue based support. People based support that seem to be the focus of the discussion at the convention and it is about providing financial support directly to the victims and survivors of the victims. If there is enough resources and reliable avenue to channel the support, this can solve many problems the victims face. Given the number of people affected and the blatant and illegal intrusion into peoples’ lives that the TPLF government undertakes, however, providing financial support to everyone affected will be overwhelmingly difficult. Moreover, this struggle is at its early stages and the number of victims will surely increase by days and hours as the struggle intensifies, making it impossible to meet all the needs through people based support.

On the other hand, issue based support may not address the immediate needs of the affected individuals and their families but it is the wisest and most effective way of using the meager resources to advance our cause. Such support promotes solutions to causal problems such as providing public awareness, empowering the national movement, providing budgetary support to wage armed struggle, and for soliciting diplomatic support from regional and international communities. We strongly believe that the OLC organizing committee is either intentionally manipulating patriotic Oromo diaspora for their own gains or is totally misguided in presenting this document for discussion. Their proposed action will treat the symptom but does not cure the disease.

Meeting Venue.

The convention was held at a 4-star Atlanta Hilton Hotel and a total of nine conference rooms were used in addition to the large convention hall. Rumor has it that the organizing committee fully covered travel expenses of about 500 pre-selected individuals and the rest paid their own expenses. Even if we ignore this claim as unsubstantiated hearsay, the expenses involved in renting all these conference halls for three days and other miscellaneous expenses is sure to be significant. Using average rates for the Atlanta area, we estimated the total costs to be over $100,000.00 by conservative estimates. The question one must ask is, therefore, who paid for all these expenses? No organization, political or civic, ever came forward and disclosed that they paid for the convention and the organizing committee did not disclose their source of funding. We are, therefore, left with questions and speculations. Is it possible that this was funded by an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization with a set political agenda? If so, how can we accept the outcome of such a gathering as beneficial to the Oromo people? God forbid, what if there is a long arm of TPLF, or its surrogate the OPDO, involved in this? Given the links between some of the organizers and the Ethiopian government that we uncovered, it does not surprise us if they have a hand in it. The Oromo people have the right to know who sponsored the Atlanta Oromo Leadership Convention and organizers have a legal and moral obligation to disclose it. A convention of this magnitude does not just happen.

Conclusion and a way forward.

In our opinion, the Atlanta Oromo Leadership Convention was a failure because it promoted a top-down approach whereby a selected few, who believe they know the answer to their peoples’ problems, produced documents that was supposedly meant to be a guide for the future of the Oromo people. Such documents should have been developed by the people themselves and compiled by entities that the majority of the people elected to be their representatives. Parties who compiled the documents will then present it to the public for discussion and organize a convention. Convention participants, usually representatives of different interest groups, will discuss the document in the open, without being divided into small groups with implanted facilitators and agents. We understand this process requires much larger groundwork but the result will be less controversial and more productive.

We also feel that the OLC failed because it did not adhere to the prevailing social science concepts that promotes a notion of meritocratic society that should reward the best performers of its member whereby a member of a society is valued on his\her personal contributions rather than any other criterion. The Atlanta convention unfairly criticized those who are doing the real work on the ground in Oromia while it praised and celebrated the ex officio of TPLF’s regime such as Junedin Sado, who has an Oromo blood on his hand. One should ask, if people like Junedin are to be celebrated today because they apologized to the Oromo people for what they have done, can we just forget and forgive those TPLF and OPDO officials that are killing, raping, and torturing our people in Oromia today if they come out tomorrow and ask for forgiveness? Does that mean the death of our innocent children, mothers, brothers, sisters, and fathers will be in vein? It was mind boggling to observe that the only video record that was made public from the tightly controlled convention halls was the one that was attacking a veteran Oromo organization, the OLF. The crocodile tear that followed the attack as a denouncement of the action by one of the organizers was, of course, childish.

Personal Ambition the source of our weakness – By Rundassa

While we were taken aback by the participation, and later first class treatment, of Junedin at the convention, a much bigger surprise came when we learned that people like Fikre Tolessa and other diehard Ethiopianists were also participants. This only strengthened our conviction that the OLC was not meant to affirm the unity of the Oromo people as claimed but to hijack the struggle and change its course. As concerned Oromo group, we do not have problems with the Ethiopian identity if the Oromo people choose it. What we have a problem with, however, is the behind the scenes maneuvering by this group with the objective of appointing themselves as leaders and deciding on the future of the Oromo people. It was also saddening to witness active supporters of the TPLF regime playing major roles as members of the organizing committee of the convention and this makes the whole game a fiasco meant to harm the Oromo struggle.

Now that the convention has come and gone, it is time for true Oromo nationalists in diaspora to reassess our situation and work together on a way forward. In our opinion, we learned quite a lot from the London conference and the Atlanta convention. Lessons learned from these meetings will serve us immensely as we chart our future course. More than anything, these conferences helped us identify the different groups in Oromo politics and what they stand for. The lines are not blurry anymore as we can see them clearly. Granted that every Oromo person is entitled to his (her) views on the future of Oromia, this is an opportune time to accept the existence of such differences and come together to free our people from centuries old subjugation and humiliation. Our focus needs to be on the enemy, not against each other. We do not need to be organized under the same political organization to be united. Our unity of purpose should be on defeating the real enemy. Instead of trying to create new leadership, support existing leaders of your choice and hold them accountable. The ultimate arbitrators of who will lead the Oromo people are the Oromo people themselves. That, however, can only happen after victory. Therefore, let us all make supporting our people achieve that victory our priority by providing the resources that they need. As one of our nationalist comrade, obbo Bekele Naga, once said, “There are no mountains that we cannot move” if we have a unity of purpose. We need to be aware, however, that there will always be selfish traitors and power mongers among us and it is our responsibility to guard our revolution from such individuals or groups.

Oromia Shall be Free!!
Garee Mo’u
Gareemou@gmail.com
(Concerned Oromo Group)

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FROM PLENTY TO POVERTY: Fayyeeraa N. Sobbooqsaa: Do You Know an Oromo Culture – ‘Garaacha Uffachuu?’: “Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and Apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” ~ Nelson Mandela

By Fayyeeraa N. Sobbooqsaa

Fayyeeraa N. Sobbooqsaa

“Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and Apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” ~ Nelson Mandela

–
(Beekan Gulumaa) — Do You Know an Oromo Culture  – ‘Garaacha Uffachuu?’

The purpose of writing this story is to leave behind some historical record about our cultures, traditions and ways of life. It also helps us to compare the prosperity of our forefathers before the conquest of Oromia in contrast to the current Oromo generation. It should neither be considered as nostalgia for the past nor failure to recognize the existence of the various types of modern business enterprises.

My grandfather was always telling us about the nostalgic past and the life styles his grandfather was enjoying. He usually likes telling us the abundance and wealth of his grandfather, Jiruu Barii, the grandson of Gadaa Kunee. The whole community knows the wealth of Jiruu Barii and they also tell his story in relation to an Oromo culture known as “Garaacha Uffachuu.” They often say, “InniOromoo loon kuma bobbaasee fi dhibba elmachaa ture”, which means Jiruu Barii had a thousand cattle and a hundred more cows for milk. He was one of the very rich Oromos in the region who have celebrated the ceremony of “garaacha uffachuu”, that is, the tradition of celebrating and cherishing wealth with families, relatives, friends and the whole community members in the area.

Jiruu Barii invited all his relatives and friends from near and far to his home. He offered them to choose the best oxen they liked for slaughter. A big pool was made from milk and people were watching Jiruu Barii while he was swimming in the milk pool to celebrate and cherish the abundance of his wealth according to the Oromo culture of “garaacha uffachuu.”

There was another Oromo, Didhaa Abbaa Bashaadaa, who has also celebrated and cherished his wealth in Bokkuu Incinnii after Jiruu Barii. Obbo Ida’oo Boruu also told me that the families of Obbo Shimellis Adugna, a former officer of the Dergue regime, have celebrated and cherished their cattle wealth –garaacha uffachuu  in Odaa Nabee region of Oromia.

After our land was taken over by the expansionist Abyssinian Emperors and land lords, however, the cattle were looted by the gun carrying settlers from the north. In addition, our people didn’t have enough grazing land for their cattle since their lands were taken over by force. The road to powerlessness and impoverishment started in such manners. Here we have a very famous and popular poem that has almost become like a national anthem for the Oromo people:

Inxooxxoo dhabbatanii
Caffee gad ilaaluun hafe,
Finfinnee loon geessanii,
Hora obaasuun hafe
Tulluu Daalattii irratti
Yaa’iin Gullallee hafe
Gafarsatti dabranii
Qoraan cabsachuun hafe
Hurufa Bombii irratti,
Jabbilee yaasuun hafe
Bara jarri dhufani,
Loon keenyas ni dhumani
Edda Mashashaan dhufee
Biraadummaan hin hafe.
(Source: Wolde Yohannes Warqineh and Gammachu Malkaa; ‘Oromiyaa: YetedebeqewYegif Tarik,’ 1994)
English translation: (by Geresu Tufa)
No more standing on Intottoo,
to look on meadows blow.
No more taking cattle to Finfinnee,
to water at the mineral springs.
No more gathering on Daalattii,
where the Gullallee assembly used to meet.
No more going beyond Gafarsaa,
to chop firewood.
No more pasturing calves,
on the meadows of Hurufa Bombi.
The year the enemy came,
our cattle were consumed.
Since Mashasha came,
freedom has vanished.

Wolde Yohannes Warqineh is a close relative of Suphaa Tolasaa, one of the unsung Oromo heroes who were brutally executed by the very backward, repressive, exploitative and brutal feudal regime of Emperor Haile-sellassie I. I am a living witness to the lynching of Suphaa Tolasaa and many other unsung heroes who have been killed while bravely resisting and fighting against the Abyssinian occupation army. There is a work in progress to document the heroic resistance of these unsung heroes – Guddisaa Raggaasaa, Hirkisaa Naggasaa, Mormataa Toltii, Suphaa Tolasaa and many others on the North side of Tulluu Roggee, in Dirree Incinnii. There were people like Shiferraa and Jamamaa on the South side of Tulluu Roggee in Ammayyaa county, Central Oromia. More research work is needed to complete the documentation of their resistance struggle too before the elders who know them pass away.

Here are some of the ‘geerarsa’ they have left behind for the next Oromo generation just few minutes prior to lynching on a busy market day at GabaaRobii, in Diree Incinnii. There were two open market days in Dirree Incinniiduring that time, Wednesday and Saturday. If they make it on Saturday, many students may miss to see it. Therefore, the intention of choosing Wednesday is to instill fear and terrorize both the students, their parents and the rest of the people through their scare tactic known as: “Ineen yaayyeh teqaxaa”which is like saying “see me and refrain from fighting me.”Lynching was used as a very strong tactic of threatening the people to stop resisting against tbe Imperial feudal monarchy…

Geerarsa Suphaa Tolasaa:
Abbaa Soorii yaa suphaa,
Homaa hin hoorin yaa gurbaa.
Incinnii buuta hin jennee,
Wadaroon duuta hin jennee,
Geerarsa Mormataa Toltii
Eessa roobeetu eessa otoo hin roobin hafaa?
Warri eenyuu boyeetu, warri eenyuu otoo hin booyiin hafaa?
Ya Abbaa koo yaa Toltii, haadha koo ishee na deesse,
Bakka garaa koo hin geenyee, daanyaatu  natti murteesse.

Continuing the Legacy of Gadaa Kunee:

The Struggle Against Conquest, Domination, Oppression and Exploitation
“Warruma dur lolatu amma illee lolachaa kan jiru.” ~ Obbo Daandanaa Gurmuu at the notorious Ma’ikelawwi torture facility and detention center. I didn’t  inherit fear. I inherited heroism, courage and determination. Guddisaa Raggaasaa and many others tried their best to resist occupation, domination and dispossession and passed away.
I have tried to document the fight over land between the two Oromo clans, WarraKunee and Warra Arfinjoo, and presented it on the 2015 annual conference of the Oromo Studies Association. As I have tried to explain on the research paper, the fight over land ownership between these two clans started prior to the conquest of Oromia and that conflict was effectively exploited by Emperor HaileSellassie’s regime.

As a first generation who has got the chance to have access to college education,
I was interested to study political science and international relations at Addis Ababa University. However, my friends advised me it is a very risky business for Oromos to study politics. They were quoting the infamous saying, “Polotikaa innaa korreentii beruuquu nawu.” It is like saying, “politics and electricity from afar.” One of my friends was saying, “People who have our caliber can study politics on their own by reading books, journals, magazines and newspapers.” We didn’t study politics. However, all of us (including my advisors) were severely and adversely affected by both domestic and international politics.

So, where are those who were saying, “Those of you who have been studying other professional careers such as Accounting instead of politics were just 12+0?” We don’t even hear their voices in any Oromo community activities except that of a lackey and collaborator  of the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front, Dina Mufti, the so called Ethiopian Ambassador who was shamelessly denying the killings of the Oromo people during #OromoProtests. Dina Mufti has chosen political science and international relations at Addis Ababa University and he was denying the killings and the persecution of the Oromo people during a televised interview with an Eritrean Ambassador to Kenya on a Kenyan Television. I was not surprised at all because George Orwell has already put on record the realities of contemporary politics on one of his books, Why I Write, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

As a citizen of Oromia, it is a duty bound responsibility to continue the legacy of defending my motherland, Oromia, both from internal and external intruders and invaders. Although it was started as a scattered resistance, the spirit and courage of the freedom fighting struggle that was started by Guddisaa Raggaasaa and his other comrades against the Abyssinian colonial army has left a lasting impact on me to confront tyrant and autocratic dictatorial regimes. As a management employee of Ethiopian Airlines, I had a better opportunity to flee the country but I have decided to stay and do something.

“Having Comfort With the ‘Enemy’ You Fight With”
The following story was told by an Oromo military officer who was living in FortoMilitary Camp in Asmara in the1980s. It was in the mid 1980s. I have been in one of the residence homes in a military camp on top of a hill in Asmara city, Eritrea. The officer was an Oromo who was married to an Eritrean woman. They had a pretty little girl. I went there to secure pension for a deceased soldier who died bycar accident while he was on duty in Asmara city.

The officer took me to the Kagnew military base to talk to the concerned authorities regarding the pension fund. Two Soviet military attaché` were walking in front of us to enter Kagnew Station. The officer was saying, “Look at our bosses. They will not be searched to enter the military base but both of us will be searched. You will see it.” As he said, the two Soviet military attaché` were not searched on the gate. However, both of us were searched as he told me to enter that military base.

The officer was showing me the huge scraps and wreckages collected from the war fronts. There were too many disabled IFA military trucks, various types of military vehicles that were manufactured in the Soviet Union, tanks, helicopters, various types of heavy artillery and so on in the vast compound of the huge military base. That officer was saying, “We are just cash cows for the Soviet Union. They don’t want the war to end. Look at the fence of Kagnew Station itself. It is built from scraps collected from tank, mortar and the various types of artillery and military equipments he was naming that I have never heard of before that day. He was saying, “What you are seeing here is perhaps 0.01% of the total wreckage lying in the deserts of Eritrea, Tigray and Ogaden.”

He was also saying, “As you have seen it in my home in Forto military camp, there is no problem between individuals. I love my Eritrean wife and my cute daughter.” He also said, ‘Nama nan jaaladha jechuu malee, namni na jaalata jechuun hin dabda’amu.’ It is like saying, ‘you cannot certainly say someone loves me but you can say I love someone.” He continued telling me a story of a General who had an Eritrean wife who went to her parent’s home the night Kagnew Station was bombed. He suspects that she had some prior information about the bombing of the military base from the Eritrean Liberation Front. He was showing me the armament storages and other buildings that were destroyed by bombs set by the guerrilla fighters.

He continued telling me his concerns, “Who knows the heart of my own wife too? She may withhold such vital information from me too like the wife of that General if she gets some tip that Forto Military Camp would also be bombed by the Eritrean Liberation Front.” He was leading a life full of controversy, suspicionand fear. He sighed and said, “In the military life, you can die any moment. Therefore, we have no other choices except having comfort with the ‘enemy’ we are forced to fight with.”

I managed to secure 41.00 Ethiopian Birr per month, (which was about $19.80 U.S. Dollars at the exchange rate of the time @2.07) as a pension fund for the four family members of the deceased soldier who died while serving his “Revolutionary Motherland Ethiopia!.” It is even very hard to imagine how $4.95 per month could feed a child, cover clothing costs, pay for house rent, lumbar for cooking food, electricity for lighting a home, water bills, transportation expenses and cover other miscellaneous expenses. Telephone, Radio, television and gas are a luxury that only the privileged few are entitled to have access to.

The irony is even today, there are too many Oromos who do not know they are under persecution. It is very relevant to recite Harriet Tubman’s observation here: “I have freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” That is why they have been denying us the right to have access to quality education to keep us in the dark and exploit our resources. Now, they have started giving very inferior quality education to our kids to continue the legacy of keeping them in the dark and exploit both our human and natural resources.

On the flip side, the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher was saying, “There is no such thing as a community. There is only a family.” In contrast, the European colonial powers and their client states were destroying strong and powerful families in Africa and elsewhere. That is why the Oromo people say, “Kan tokkoof badii, tokkoof badhaadha.” It is like saying, ‘Some ones’ profits could be at the expense of the other person.” While those who were looting our resources are only focusing on the pursuit of happiness for themselves and their family members, the looted Africans who were once strong and prosperous families like mine are now struggling to rebuild their impoverished and disempowered Oromo communities around the globe.

I always remember how Oromo soldiers who were involved in the various war fronts used to write the slogan of the time, “Revolutionary Motherland or Death!” at the end of their letters they were writing to their family members. Is it really a “motherland” worth dying for? What they were calling a “motherland” was not even taking care of their family members, both when they were alive and after their death. On the other hand, the Dergue military regime has never hesitatedspending  billions of dollars on killing machines despite the unimaginable misery of the people. It was such enormous injustice that was extremely hard to ignore that has forced me to get involved instead of becoming a bystander.

According to World Genocide Watch, “perpetuating poverty” is one of the tactics often used by ruthless regimes that are engaged in committing genocide against the ethnic and religious groups they have targeted to exterminate and cleanse them to vacate and occupy their space. Prevent Genocide International also observed it perfectly, “The genocidal purpose of destroying or degrading the economic foundation of national groups was to lower the standards of living and to sharpen the struggle for existence, that no energies might remain for cultural or national life.” As a result of such genocidal policies, we are also significantly shrinking and our body weights and heights are becoming smaller as compared to our foremothers and forefathers. My grandfather was also telling me how he was much smaller in body weight and shorter in height as compared to Cuucar Kunee, a brother of Gadaa Kunee and how I was even much smaller than my father and himself. He was also telling me the festive wedding of his elder son, my own father, and the number of cattle he has slaughtered and how life would become much harder for my generation. The objective is obviously to make us physically and psychologically unfit to resist their exploitative and repressive brutal governance systems.

We have been discussing the shrinkage of our body weights and heights with many Oromo activists like Obbo Tamaam Yousuf and even during this annual conference of Oromo Studies Association with Obbo Jayilu Danboobaa, Obbo Tsagaye Gelgelu other Oromos. Obviously, # OromoProtests are the outcome of these severe political, social, economic and cultural crises.

Unintended Consequences of Conquest and Occupation

The unintended consequences of the destruction of our cultural heritages andSafuu and Safeeffannaa – the set of ethical and moral values that were nurtured and developed by the Oromo Gadaa Democratic System of governance over hundreds of years have been replaced by a very inferior culture of governance that has led us to such severe social, cultural and economic crises. What were not very common in the past few decades and despised by our people such as begging are becoming very common. Awfully bad cultures such leaving our homestead and becoming  refugees in foreign countries, the disruption of male-female ratio as a result of the endless wars that have been waged to use our youth as cannon fodders and income generating creatures under the guise of peace keeping forces has also led to other social crises such as prostitution and polygamy. There are also too many widows and single mothers who are struggling to raise children alone since their husbands were killed in the various war fronts.

The hitherto unprecedented human greed and culture of nepotism and corruption that was put in place to exploit and dispossess our people is another social crisis. Dishonesty, greed and lies of the coward technocrats and collaborators like the so called Ethiopian Ambassador who has been working with both the Dergue and the TPLF/EPRDF regimes are becoming prime examples of immorality and bad governance cultures. It truly reflects the degradation of our Safuu and Safeffanaa and there is no other crime that is much greater than aligning yourself with those regimes who commit genocide on your people to advance personal fame and get some leftovers and share from the wealth that is being looted from the resources of Oromia and other marginalized nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian Empire. I personally believe that it is only the posterity measures and documentations of ethnic cleansing and the genocidal extra-judicial killings of our people and the courage to speak against their savagery and barbarity to name and shame that would expose their torture techniques and deter the Oromo collaborators not to align themselves with the Tigrean Peoples’ Liberation Fromt (TPLF).

It was because of such unbearable injustices that our generation was also saying “The Dergue Regime Must Go!” We didn’t have the social media like the Qubee Generation. There were no Facebook, Tweeter, YouTube Videos, TV and Radio that were there to support our struggle during that time. There were no books,journals and newspapers that we could read and enrich our knowledge about the Oromo people. The very few books I managed to read in Ethiopia that discuss Oromo issues while  being under fear of persecution for simply reading them were. Gadaa Melbaa, Cultural Survival – Politics and the Ethiopian Famine bySisai Ibsa and Bonnie Holcomb, a series of articles/blogs, The Kindling Point, also by Bonnie Holcomb and Sisai Ibsa and Ethiopia and the Challenge of Independence by Haggai Erlich were the very precious historical records for our generation. Unlike our generation, there are now abundant books, journals, Websites, and the social media such as Facebook, Tweeter, YouTube and other types of electronic media.

The Dergue Regime collapsed but those who replaced it have even become the worst and the most vicious of all the previous Ethiopian regimes. The Qubee Generation is also saying, “The TPLF/EPRDF regime must go!” Yes, it must go.

What the United States Meant to Me as a Person:
“U.N. official, panels address issue of torture at Washington Conference” ~catholicphilly.com, Catholic News Service (CNS)

Six great moments I had here in the United States of America Are:

1. The Light Africa Conference at the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Hall because I have been blogging on Ayyaantuu.com how I was inspired by what Thomas Jefferson has written in the last quarter of 18th century.
2. The invitation at the presidential campaign by Senator Hilary Clinton at Daughters of the American Revolution Hall in year 2008. I was among the very few Hillary supporters when too many people were supporting the Obama campaign and I had a valid and justifiable reason for doing that because I know from my own life experiences that children, women and the elderly are the most vulnerable groups in conflict areas. Therefore, it was just more than politics for me since I know many “untold stories”about violence against women.
3. My personal testimony about torture at the Catholic University of America on a joint conference by the International Crisis Group, Amnesty International and TASSC- International. The conference was sponsored by TASSC- International. The keynote speaker was the Special Raporteur for the United Nattion’sConvention Against Torture (UN-CAT), Professor Juan Mendez, who is also a torture survivor from Argentina. Mendez is also a member of TASSC- International.
4. My personal testimony at the United States Congress – Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on June 25, 2015.
5. I have been invited to attend an interfaith conference at the Washington Hebrew Congregation
6. I have been invited to attend an interfaith conference on World Refugee Day at the ADAMS Mosque in Sterling, Virginia. The keynote speakers were the United States Secretary of State, John F. Kerry and the United Nattion’s Goodwill Ambassador for refugees, Angelina Jolie.

Some may consider this as self-aggrandizement. However, as a person who has endured unimaginable magnitude of human brutality, I would rather say it is truly American values, “Having pride in what you do.” I have never expected the United States to solve all problems of the world. There are already too many problems that the United States itself has created and the Horn of Africa is one of such regions. While asking them not to prop up dictators, it is also up to us to solve our own internal problems. It is never too late to leave behind the culture of fragmentation and we must come forward as a united political force to lead that troubled region and bring about lasting peace, freedom, democracy and sustainable economic development.

I would like to thank the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) – International for encouraging me and giving me the opportunity to talk to the people and government of the United States of America. I believe that we have tried our best to empower Oromo women through the eponymous name to commemorate the martyred Oromo freedom fighter girl, Ayyaantuu, and it is really very interesting to connect her with an Oromo freedom fighter and genocide survivor Urjii Dhaabaa.

There is also another girl whose name is Ayyaantuu and she is in the shadow and she doesn’t even know that she has become a genocide survivor through the tactic of perpetuating poverty. The Shakespearean Ayyaantuu may use her knowledge of theatrical arts to connect the dots since I have already told the ‘untold stories” to other people and a Stanford University professor the various tactics of domination, oppression and exploitation of the Oromo people. I would also like to thank the Stanford University professor, a friend of TASSC- International, for giving me counseling and assistance to reunite with my family members who were forced to live in three continents –Africa, Europe and North America.

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The election of Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo as Somalia’s president has inspired optimism for the future of Somalia.

By Abukar Arman

Abukar Arman is a Somali political analyst, writer and former diplomat.

Women carry posters of the newly elected Somalian President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as they celebrate his victory, near the Daljirka Dahson monument in Mogadishu [Feisal Omar/Reuters]

Key officials, including the speakers of both chambers of the Federal Parliament, were awkwardly seated under the stage where ballots were being cast for the most important election in Somalia’s history. And the event itself was being conducted in Halane district, a geographical space that is physically located in Mogadishu, but in reality is entirely a different world – it is a type of a “Green Zone” for UN agencies, diplomatic missions, and private security.

But, we now know that bad optics don’t always result in bad outcomes.

Unlike what the beneficiaries of the status quo were expecting, February 8 has turned out to be a day of triumph for a nation that has fallen into a state of hopelessness and a day that would permanently be engraved in Somalia’s history. Against all odds, and in line with the public sentiment, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmajo) was electedpresident of Somalia.

But what caused this public euphoria, and what does it mean in the grand scale of things?

The will of the people

The inter-clan and intergenerational jubilations across Somalia, the neighbouring countries and within the Somali diaspora demonstrate that the new president’s reputation transcends clan loyalties and that he has a clear public mandate. Both sides of the divided city of Galkayo celebrated, as did the city of Beledweyne. In both of these cities, brothers and sisters have been kept apart due to inter-clan hostilities.

Make no mistake: From the public perspective, this is a time of reckoning. This was not just a referendum against domestic evils of corruption and pathological looting of public resources and national assets. This was the roar of a nation that reached its tipping point.

First, it was a total rejection of clan-based federalism that kept Somalia dizzied and in a downward spin of discord, violence, and hate. This was a system engineered by foreigners and institutionalised by the “Yes, Sir” corner of the Somali political elite.

Second, it was a rejection of the injustice of the so-called 4.5 clan power-sharing system, which clusters all Somali minority communities into a less-than-a-whole-clan category – in other words, a flagrantly discriminative system that sidelines all minority groups, regardless of population sizes, and penalises them for never having their own clan-based militias.

Third, it was a rejection of all types of foreign exploitation and foreign domination. Especially, against the subservient role that the current class of Somali politicians have succumbed to, in relation to Ethiopia and, to a certain degree, Kenya.

Fourth, it was a rejection of all those too familiar foreign-orchestrated and funded pseudo-reconciliation powwows that almost always end up with phoney handshakes in Addis Ababa. It was a public demand for genuine, Somali-led and funded national reconciliation to close a bloody chapter that corroded “Somalinimo” – the collective sense of inclusive patriotism.

Fifth, it was a rejection of what I call the tripartite of squanderance – the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and international NGOs that gulp down almost all of the funds contributed by donor nations to help Somalia get back on its feet.

Somalia under trusteeship

In its current status, Somalia has been under what looked like, felt like, and smelled like “trusteeship” without any trustee accountability.

The implementation authority was divided between and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and UNSOM, which would give the tacit, and sometimes flagrant, support to politicians who would never question or second-guess their decisions vis-a-vis the interest of their nation.

Somalia became a lucrative project and the only way to sustain that project was to keep it on perpetual dependency on handouts funnelled through international NGOs which spend most of the aid monies on “overhead”. They also subcontract local NGOs, which duplicate the same formula.

Meanwhile, due to lack of an interconnected and unified security force that could be referred to as a national army or defence force, the government, and the nation as a whole, rely heavily on AMISOM and other paramilitary groups ranging from clan militias and contracted mercenaries, who are accountable to no one.

Though in the beginning of its mission, AMISOM contributed to the stabilisation of Somalia, it became a hopelessly failed enterprise the minute Ethiopia and Kenya became part of it. Now, AMISOM is operating on a different agenda. Ironically, its timeline for withdrawal is set for 2020, when the next election will take place.

The road ahead

The new president is charged to lead a nation that has systematically lost its national identity, trust, and common purpose; a nation that has been running on empty when it comes to patience; a nation that has very anxious expectations.

Knowing the new president well and having worked with him, I am confident that he will put Somalia’s interest before all others’. He is a champion of an enlightened patriotism that is optimistic and relies on itself to restore the corroded dignity of a self-destructive nation.

The sustainability of his legitimacy, popularity and his vision for a viable Somali nation would depend on the sacrifices that he makes for genuine reconciliation and transformative change.

On this, I urge the new president to consider reaching out to our brethren in Somaliland by extending a state apology for their suffering under the military government and taking the flag to them, as they have done after independence.

I believe such timely symbolism could inspire a new generation of peacemakers, set the stage for genuine national reconciliation, and help patch together this broken nation.

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Maasai Fighting for Compensation from Fashion Labels Who’ve Appropriated Their Iconic Cultural Brand

The Maasai are fighting back by attempting to trademark their name and designs AFP/Getty Images

(Atlanta Black Star) — The Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania embody one of the most powerful images of tribal Africa, but it’s a guise that’s becoming increasingly imitated.

Companies around the world have, for some time now, continued to exploit the Maasai’s iconic cultural brand in a bid to infuse a patina of exoticism to their products and increase sales.

The most familiar, perhaps, harks back to Louis Vuitton’s 2012 spring/summer men’s collection that included hats, shirts and scarves inspired by the Maasai Shuka, a traditional African blanket cast in colorful shades of red and blue.

The key issue here is that the Maasai people aren’t being compensated for anything sold under these luxury brands’ names despite having helped them sell billions of dollars worth of goods worldwide, according to Light Years IP, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that works on public interest intellectual property issues internationally.

Louis Vuitton Men’s Collection

As a result, another group known as the Maasai Intellectual Property Initiative (MIPI) has been created to challenge companies referring to or copying the signature Maasai style without a licensing agreement.

It hopes that by working with the community and forcing companies to obtain licenses from the Maasai that reasonable funds can then be distributed to the people.

“Nearly 80 percent of the Maasai population in Kenya and Tanzania are living below the poverty line,” the website explains. “Yet, their distinctive and iconic cultural brand and intellectual property concepts have been used commercially around the globe.”

Just as Burberry has the right to copyright and trademark its signature check, so, too, the Maasai should be able to protect its traditional designs. But, for some reason, while the rest of the fashion industry progresses, it continues to struggle to maintain an ethical business model.

By working with the Maasai through community boards and gatherings, the MIPI hopes to place control of the cultural brand back in the hands of its people and accrue the compensation that is deserved.

In fact, they’ve gone as far as to quantify exactly how much the Maasai are owed. It’s calculated that around 80 companies are presently infringing and as a result, the Maasai people should be collecting $10 million in licensing fees every year.

Louis Vuitton’s menswear SS12 show featured knits very similar to the Maasai Shuka (AFP/Getty Images)

Read more here

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Ethiopia spends $1.8 million, a year, for lobbying on one of firms it retains. 

(kichuu) – Ethiopia has hired SGR LLC Government Relations and Lobbying firm to lobby on behalf of the Ethiopian government to U.S. policy makers, congress, the media and business leaders.

According to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database seen by nazret.com, Ethiopian government will pay $150,000 per month for the said service.  The agreement was signed last month by Ethiopian Ambassador to the U.S., Girma Biru (Signed as Girma Geda) and Greg Lowman, a partner at the lobbying firm. Scroll down to see the document below.

Ethiopia Enlists Lobbying Support to Strengthen Relations with US

The agreement signed says “SGR will work with the client to develop and execute a public affairs plan to enhance the dialogue and relationships with policymakers, media, opinion leaders and business leaders”. It is not clear if this includes paying for ‘opinion leaders’ to write favorable commentaries in major newspapers in the United States.

Ethiopia is not new to lobbying the U.S. government, according to Newsweek, it wrote in 2010 that Ethiopia’s lobbying had helped to defuse charges that the government has turned increasingly authoritarian. In a memo sent to congressional offices, DLA Piper, which represented Ethiopia then, argued, “The terms ‘political prisoners’ and ‘prisoners of conscience’ are undefined and mischaracterize the situation in Ethiopia,” and should be removed from a bill that condemned the Ethiopian regime for detaining opposition activists.

What is FARA?

According to Sunlight Foundation, in 1938, Congress passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires those working on behalf of a foreign government or a quasi-government agency to disclose information about their activities. Congress passed the act as a response to the Nazi propaganda that was entering the United States during World War II, and was supposed to give members of Congress and the American people more knowledge about foreign interests trying to influence U.S. politics.

FARA requires that someone register with the Department of Justice within 10 days of agreeing to be an agent. Then that individual must file reports every six months detailing their activities.

You can see the same information we found on FARA’s website.

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Hussein Omar Mohamed, arrived in Italy in 2013 on a boat full of refugees, won yesterday in Granarolo a 10Km

Hussein Omar Mohamed, arrived in Italy in 2013 on a boat full of refugees, won yesterday in Granarolo a 10Km

BOLOGNA, February 13, 2017 (Quotodiano – Google translation) – $ 1,500 to get on a boat from Libya and Disembark, after five days at sea on bread and water, in Italy. And the story of the Ethiopian Mohamed Omar Hussein, escaped from his homeland where he was held in a prison simply because of belonging to the Oromo ethnic group. That is one of those discrimination types by Tigre regime in Ethiopia. He managed to escape through a small hole made after three months of digging with a little bit of metal. He left family and friends in Ethiopia, after struggling to get freedom and rights,  precisely for this reason, he had been arrested and tortured.

Once he gained a handful of money as a builder, Hussein decided to embark on his journey of hope, embarking for Italy along with many other fellow countrymen, some of those missed and dead in the sea. Once in Italy, as a good Ethiopian, Mohamed decided to give vent to his passion, the athletic race. To help the Gnarro Jet Mattei of Bologna, thanks to President Luigi Giagnorio who welcomes him into society, Hussein’s point man on the team. His legs make the difference, in 2015 he won the half-marathon and a race to Suviana Baigno, but his achievements did not stop. Just yesterday, another triumph, this time in the 28th edition of ‘Along with Danilo’ 10km FIDAL race organized in Granarolo dell’Emilia and that the same Hussein had also won last year. What happened Net Ethiopian with almost two minutes of Philip Captains Athletics Modena and Alberto Bonvento of Pontelungo.

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Ethiopia: Dams, Plantations a Threat to Kenyans

Lake Turkana Water Levels down, further drop expected

Nairobi (HRW) – Dropping water levels in Kenya’s Lake Turkana following the development of dams and plantations in Ethiopia’s lower Omo Valley threaten the livelihoods of half a million indigenous people in Ethiopia and Kenya, Human Rights Watch said today.

Based on publicly available data from the United States Department of Agriculture, Lake Turkana’s water levels have dropped by approximately 1.5 meters since January 2015, and further reduction is likely without urgent efforts to mitigate the impact of Ethiopia’s actions. Human Rights Watch research based on satellite imagery shows that the drop is already affecting the shoreline of the lake, which has receded as much as 1.7 kilometers in Ferguson Gulf since November 2014. The Gulf is a critical fish breeding area, and a key fishing ground for the indigenous Turkana people.

“The predicted drop in the lake levels will seriously affect food supplies in the Omo Valley and Lake Turkana, which provide the livelihoods for half a million people in both Kenya and Ethiopia,” said Felix Horne, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Ethiopian government’s moves to develop its resources should not endanger the survival of indigenous people living downstream.

In 2015, the reservoir behind the new Gibe III dam in Ethiopia began filling. Water that previously flowed unimpeded into Lake Turkana, replenishing seasonal drops in lake levels, has since been held behind the Gibe III dam. In 2015 the annual July-November flood from the Omo River into Lake Turkana did not occur, resulting in a drop of water levels of 1.3 meters from November 2014. The very limited artificial release of water from Gibe III in 2016 was not enough to replenish water levels in Lake Turkana. As of January 30, 2017, lake levels were approximately 1.5 meters lower than they were two years earlier according to the data.

People living in fishing communities along Lake Turkana who spoke to Human Rights Watch in August 2016, were generally aware of the risks posed by Gibe III but largely uninformed about the plantations and the devastating impact they could have on their livelihoods. When Human Rights Watch visited communities around Ferguson Gulf on the western lake shores that month, local residents had noticed changes from previous years in the lake levels.

People who depend on fishing for their livelihood said that their daily catch has been reduced. One 50-year-old woman living near Lake Turkana told Human Rights Watch in August 2016: “It has been difficult these days…the main issue has been hunger. There is reduced water in the lake.” While multiple factors contribute to the decline, including overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices, a further drop in lake levels will most likely reduce catches even further.

 

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Human Rights League of Horn of Africa

(HRLHA)

Written Statement:

Submitted to United Nations Human Rights Council,

34^th Session

27 February – 24 March, 2017

Item 4: Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

(Country- Ethiopia)

Geneva, 12 February, 2017

ETHIOPIA:

ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN OROMIA ESCALATE AFTER THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IS DECLARED

ETHIOPIA:

How Many Should die Before the Internatioanl Community intervenes to save lives?

                    HRLHA  Calls for  Intervention by the international community

to end Human Tragedy in Ethiopia

1. The Ethiopian government has targeted the Oromo people in general and the youth in particular, since the 2005 beginning of the mass, but the peaceful uprising of the Oromo people led by Orom students demanding their freedom and the halt of systematic violations of their fundamental rights. The response from the government to the legitimate and peaceful demands of the people] was massive arrests, torture, disappearances and summary executions of the civilian population. However, the heavy hand of the government forces didn’t stop the demands of the Oromo people and the protest has continued for over ten years. From November 2015, the mass movement- in which Oromos from all walks of life have participated- has continued on a daily basis until the government declared a State of Emergency on October 8, 2016.<

The government also targeted prominent political leaders of Oromo parties that are registered and functioning peacefully in Ethiopia. Deputy Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress – OFC, Mr. Bekele Gerba- has been in jail for some years now, with his case still pending in the court of justice under the pretext that the prosecutor is unable to gather witnesses to testify against the accused. The number of Oromo political prisoners has reached an unbearable level and so disproportionate that, using the words of one senior government official who spend few years in prison, “Afaan Oromo (the language of the Oromos) has now become the official language of Ethiopian prisons”.

2. Ethiopian prisons, as far as the rights of the political prisoners to a reasonable space/room for sleeping, access to daylights, to proper sanitation, to family visits and meeting with their respective lawyers is concerned, are that they are among the worst correctional facilities in the world. The level of torture, as reported by the families who were granted rare visits, is unbearable. The government continues to deny access to international organizations, the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteurs and the ICRC, whose report could have shed more light on the situations in the prisons.

3. The Ethiopian government boldly demonstrated its dedication to continue violating the fundamental human rights of its citizens, when it arrested Dr. Merera Guddina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress – OFC, on November 30, 2016 upon his return to Ethiopia after briefing the European Union officials on the situation in Ethiopia. The arrest, according to the government, was justified because of an alleged meeting of Dr. Merera with the other opposition leader, Prof. Berhanu Nega, chairman of the outlawed political party, Ginbot – 7 (a.k.a G7). Dr. Merera Guddina and Professor Berhanu Nega, the G7 Leaders, had been invited by the EU parliament to Brussels to attend an EU organized Conference on the Ethiopian current political crisis. According to reliable sources, Dr. Merera Gudina was taken to the infamous Maikelawi interrogation center, with the other two of his friends, Taye Negera and Kumala, both of whom were in his house during the arrest.

4. The peacful protests that have rocked Ethiopia over one year (November 2015- October 2016) led by “Qeerroo Bilissummaa” literally, youth for freedom against subjugation, dramatically changed the peaceful protests into violence after the tyrannical government mercilessly massacred over 700 Oromos, from the ground and the air, at the Irrecha Festival, Oromo Thanksgiving Day on October 2, 2016. This dramatically changed the peaceful protests into violent ones all over the country.

To download full document click here PDF

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Ethiopian marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa reunites with family despite President Trump order

Olympic marathon silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa, hugs his wife, 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son while reuniting with them at Miami International Airport on Tuesday. He hadn’t seen them in more than six months after he protested Ethiopia’s government at the Rio Games and feared returning to his home nation. (Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press)

NO airport hug compares to the overwhelming release of joy Ethiopian marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa got to enjoy with his family at Miami International Airport today.

Australia (News.com.au) — The circumstances that conspired against the Olympic silver medallist and his young family are shameful to read.

Not many would have bet on this reunion ever taking place. But it did.

He fought Ethiopian tribal purging, government officials and even US President Donald Trump to make this happen.

The 27-year-old has spoken about the long overdue reconnection with his wife and children after five months of fear, uncertainty and disappointment.

“I do want to see my family,” he told sbnation.com through an interpreter.

“It has been a while. I do have some concerns. I don’t want them to give me or my family special treatment. I’m sure they have reasons why they are putting this ban in place. But, I’m hoping nothing happens to them and we are reunited.”

Olympic silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa, left, of Ethiopia, crouches to hug his daughter Soko.Source:AP

To understand the emotion of the reunion you have to go back to the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Lilesa famously raised his arms and crossed his wrists to form an X as he crossed the line of the men’s marathon, winning the silver medal.

 The symbol was a protest against the Ethiopian government’s persecution of Lilesa’s Oromo people.

According to reports more than 400 Oromo were killed between November 2015 and last year’s Games.

The protest made Lilesa a hero to the Oromo people. It also made him a target for the ethnic warfare.

“The Ethiopian government is killing my people, so I stand with all protests anywhere, as Oromo is my tribe,” Lilesa said during the Olympics, according to kinesophy.com.

“My relatives are in prison, and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed.”

“If I go back to Ethiopia, maybe they will kill me. If not kill me, they will put me in prison. I have not decided yet, but maybe I will move to another country,” he said.

He moved to town called Flagstaff in Arizona, USA, under a special O-1 visa because of his status as an star athlete.

He never expected the fight that came next. The attempt to get his family into the United States appeared torpedoed when President Trump signed his executive order travel ban last month.

Even the recent string of court orders overriding President Trump’s order was no guarantee Lilesa’s wife Iftu Mulisa, his five-year old daughter, Soko Feyisa Lilesa and three-year old son, Sora Feyisa Lilesa would be admitted through customs on Wednesday (AEDT)

He never asked for special treatment and never received it.

Olympic silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa, of Ethiopia, carries his son Sora.Source:AP

He accepts President Trump’s authority, but does not accept the former reality TV show host’s proposed changes for immigrants and refugees.

“I do think he is targeting a certain group of people due to their belief system,” he said.

“That is wrong. The day I left my country is the day I gave up my rights. This is not my country. Donald Trump was elected through a process and he’s ultimately here to decide what he wants to do about his country and he is in charge. But, I do think it’s unfair to separate people based on their religion and it’s good to understand that people come to this country, refugees and immigrants, because they have problems like I did in my own country.”

It’s what makes this Valentine’s Day family reunion so special.

Feyisa Lilesa’s protest.Source:News Corp Australia

As special as it is, Lilesa desperately wants you to know this is not the end of the story. He has mixed emotions about celebrating the safety of his family while his Oromo people continue to be persecuted in Ethiopia.

“Despite my physical safety here in the U.S. and now a family reunion, the Ethiopian government’s ongoing abuse of the Oromo people gives me no rest,” he said.

“I want to make sure that we don’t forget the plight of millions of Oromo and other Ethiopians who are still being killed, beaten, imprisoned, dispossessed and kept in poverty.

“I will continue to speak out against injustice and its perpetrators. My biggest wish is to see the freedom of my people — all people, in every country.”

He released a full statement through his interpreter.

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(Newsweek) — The election last week of a new president in Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed—known as Farmajo—came at the same time the country was in the news for being one of the seven affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration ban.

President Mohamed immediately promised a “new beginning” for his country. He undoubtedly faces monumental political challenges in delivering this, but these may pale into insignificance against a looming famine which needs immediate action and international support if it is to be prevented.

A woman and a boy walk past a flock of dead goats in a dry land close to Dhahar in Puntland, northeastern Somalia, on December 15, 2016. The country is at risk of plunging into another famine, six years after a 2011 famine killed more than 250,000 people. MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP/GETTY

There is nothing new about famine in Somalia. The last one in 2011, killed over a quarter of a million people and is the best-chronicled descent into mass starvation in history.

Between the failure of the short rainy season in November 2010 and the declaration of famine in July 2011, the Famine Early-Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) and the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) between them released more than 70 early warning bulletins and undertook a similar number of briefings with donor governments and humanitarian agencies in a desperate attempt to trigger a preventative response. But the warnings fell on deaf ears. Only when famine was declared was aid dispatched, and at this point it was too late.

Now the alarm has been raised again. Following a poor short rainy season at the end of 2016, FEWSNET has warned that famine could return if the long rainy season, due to begin in April, fail as they did in 2011. Current forecasts suggest they might.

But things could be different this time around. Few humanitarians have forgotten the failure of 2011, which was followed by a period of intense soul-searching and painstaking evaluation. The result was a wealth of analysis on the lessons to be learned, and a grim determination to learn them.

Meanwhile, the situation in Somalia has improved in important respects. In 2011, Somalia was a country without a state, fought over by the Islamist militia al-Shabab and African Union troops in a war that dramatically restricted the ability of humanitarian agencies to reach the worst affected populations. Today, the access of humanitarian agencies is better and Somalia has a federal government, though it is probably stretching things too far to claim it has a fully functioning state at its disposal.

Despite these improvements, action to prevent famine still faces immense challenges. The last famine was confined to areas under al-Shabab’s control in the south of the country, but this time areas in the north are also at risk. This presents a major test not only for the new president but also for the authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. And whilst al-Shabab’s reach in the south has receded, it remains embedded in many areas where conflict persists as it fights to hold or regain territory. Nor for that matter is armed conflict limited to al-Shabab. Most conflict occurs between rival clans and militias locked in struggles over scarce land and water. In this context, getting aid to the most vulnerable populations remains extremely difficult.

But with innovation, determination and resources it can be done. Time is, however, perilously short. If 2011 is a guide, mortality will start to climb rapidly in April if the long rains are poor or late. Reports indicate that people are already starving to deathand populations have begun to move in search of food. This means that the scale-up must begin now.

Uncertainty about whether the long rains will fail need not be a concern because the extent of humanitarian need in Somalia is already so great, funds will find a use. Quick interventions to build resilience and shore up livelihoods, improve access to clean water and expand infant feeding programmes are no regret options: even if the long rains arrive on time and the spectre of famine fades, a lot of good will still have been done. In areas where markets are still functioning, providing people with cash can help them afford food. Agencies must also start planning together for how they will ramp up the response again should the long rains fail.

The big question is whether the money is coming. It is unknown how the United States—the source of nearly 30 per cent of Somalia’s humanitarian ai d in 2016—will view the situation. Fears that American aid might be captured by al-Shabab were behind much of the previous administration’s slow response in 2011. It is unclear how President Trump’s “America First” mantra will shape the response this time, though his administration’s approach to tackling Islamist militancy and apparent frustration at the resilience of al-Shabab may give some clues.

Nor is it clear how other donor governments will respond to the famine warning. Europe is preoccupied with its own political and economic concerns, whilst at the international level multiple humanitarian disasters compete for limited donor attention. Amid all this noise, the risk is that governments wait for certainty about the prospect of famine and squander the chance to prevent one in the process. That would be a tragedy. In a world that seems wracked by crises, this is one we can prevent.

Rob Bailey is the research director for energy, environment and resources at Chatham House, and the author of the Chatham House report Managing Famine Risk: Linking Early Warning to Early Action .

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Foreign Investment in Ethiopia Slumps After Business Attacks

• FDI dropped 20% to $1.2 billion in six months through December
• Foreign companies receive financial compensation for damages

(Bloomberg) — Foreign direct investment in Ethiopia dropped by a fifth in the first half of the country’s fiscal year after violent anti-government protests in which foreign-owned businesses were targeted.

The country attracted $1.2 billion in the six months through the end of December, compared with $1.5 billion in the same period a year earlier, Fitsum Arega, commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission, said in a phone interview Monday from the capital, Addis Ababa. He said the government may miss its annual target of $3.5 billion, with $3.2 billion more likely to be attainable.

The government of Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in October to deal with unrest accompanying protests by ethnic Oromo and Amhara communities that began in late 2015 over the alleged dispossession of their land, political marginalization and state repression. Businesses including those owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and Dutch fruit processors were attacked during the unrest. The security forces killed at least 600 demonstrators, according to the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia.

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Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, is expected to expand 7.5 percent this year, compared with an average of 9.1 percent over the past five years, according to the International Monetary Fund. Opponents of the government argue that Ethiopia’s economic gains haven’t been matched by increased political freedoms since the ruling party cracked down on the opposition in 2005, after losses in that year’s elections.

Damage Claims

The government is paying out damages to foreign and domestic companies deemed affected by the unrest, with 100 million birr ($4.4 million) already disbursed and “more in progress,” Fitsum said. Claims were received from at least 20 domestic companies. At least two foreign businesses were successful in making claims from insurance companies, while the government is also providing tax relief to operations that sustained damages during the violence, he said.

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While no foreign investors canceled planned projects, they have taken a “wait-and-see attitude” to the country, Fitsum said.

“We already have big investors in the pipeline,” Fitsum said. “There are also big textile-manufacturing companies we can expect to have in the coming six months,” he said, referring to Ethiopia’s Hawasa Industrial Park that opened in July and which the government says is the largest in Africa.

Companies investing in Hawasa Industrial Park are from countries including China, India, Belgium, Spain, France, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Fitsum said.

Total foreign direct investment in Ethiopia in the 2015-16 fiscal year was $2.2 billion, according to an EIC statement published on the website of FANA, the ruling-party affiliated broadcaster.

Yields on Ethiopia’s $1 billion of Eurobonds due 2024 hit a record 9.66 percent at the peak of the unrest in January last year, and have since recovered to 7.35 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The notes have returned 5 percent this year, compared with an average 2.5 percent for the Bloomberg USD Emerging Market Sovereign Bond Index.

Related

KPMG Economic Snapshot H2, 2016 – Ethiopia

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