Meles Zenawi's Iraq

Tedla Asfaw

I read an article on Washington Post's website last Saturday and I sent to the writer what I believe should have been covered on the legitimate title of "Ethiopia's Iraq ".

The Iraq war started four years ago by the USA and UK to remove Saddam Hussein and establish a friendly regime there and however the last Christmas war in Somalia is a contracted war to promote the USA interest waged by unelected regime of Ethiopia.

After four years of war in Iraq we have not seen anything achieved there and the American public are now against this war and in the case of Ethiopia the war from beginning have no popular support and in fact the regime used it to destroy its armed enemies of the
Ogaden National Liberation Movement(ONLF) and Oromo National Liberation Movement (OLF).

The killing of Oromo refugees who have been living in Somalia for many years at the early stages of the invasion in Somalia speaks volumes for what this war is all about.

The recent massacre in the Ethiopian Somali region is partly a reprisal for the Somali invasion and the killing in Ogaden by the regime forces and until now USA and UK have not accused ONLF and OLF as a terrorist organization and these movements have not also attacked Westerners.

The involvement of Eritrea , Arab and Muslim tyrants on the side of the Islamists directly put them in the collision course with the USA and that is why this so called war on terrorism seen as " Christian " Ethiopia invading " Muslim " Somalia and similarly the war in Iraq is portrayed as a sectarian war between Shias and Sunnis in Western media.

Ethiopian Christians and Muslims however denounced this war from the very beginning and demanded all foreigners to get out of Somalia and accept Somalis right to live in whatever form of government they choose including without government.

Ethiopians have to remove the Melese dictatorship by mass mobilization and expose the USA policy makers empty rhetoric of freedom and democracy and on this second anniversary we have to show our solidarity with our elected jailed leaders who were sacrificed for the contracting job of Melese Zenawi by the Bush administration.

The time of hiding behind terrorism curtain is now over for George Bush and also costing Tony Blair his job and Melese Zenawi's dictatorial and contracting days are also numbered and Ethiopians will not allow USA and other foreign powers to use them as proxies when they establish a democratic government accountable to them.

Elias Kifle's Courage

Tedla Asfaw
When I came across a pro government website accusing Elias Kifle of Ethiopian Review inciting Ethiopians to destroy big hotels and mines owned by Sheik Almoudi, a bank roller of the EPRDF/TPLF, I went to the Addis Dimte archive of last Sunday to follow the interview.

Ato Elias Kifle emphatically suggested that we should deny income from all sectors used by the EPRDF/TPLF regime to raise money to kill and destroy our people and that is indeed a legitimate call.

The ordinary people in Ethiopia has not benefited in any way from the so called development Ato Lidetu Ayalew and others are preaching daily except seeing few millionaires close to the regime.

Ethiopia is still on foreign food aid and the recent rationing of 25 kg of wheat(American) in Addis is to quite our people to celebrate the coming millennium with full stomach and Ato Bulcha Demekesa's account on the sleeping parliament recently on his constituent survival struggle exposed this development drum accurately.

The illegal war in Somalia which Ato Elias Kifle denounced from its start is costing the regime only human lives and compared to 70,000 we lost in Badme is still manageable for the regime and USA is paying for the rest and our vibrant" opposition " parliamentarians should have asked who is paying the bill in Somalia ? And who is also profiting from this war? The " Third Way " miracle of Ato Lidetu should send an accountant to check the war book.

I wished Ato Elias Kifle had a chance on the interview to explain his previous engagements with Ato Lidetu and his take on the coming back of Ato Lidetu in this "Third Way " Broadway show.

There are many here in the Diaspora who accused Ato Elias Kifle being an anti Ethiopian unity and a supporter of " secessionists " like OLF and ONLF and his answer was valid on this interview, either we have to talk to them or fight them and engaging them is the best for our country and I fully agreed with him.

It is indeed very courageous of him to come out with position on the recent massacre in Ogaden while many so called oppositions politicians in the Diaspora were running for cover is commendable, and characterization of some of his Diaspora critics as people who have soft belly for EPRDF/TPLF after sixteen years of misrule and killing is indeed true and valid.

Tony Blair Vs Ethiopians

Tedla Asfaw

Tony Blair was on the side of the Ethiopian tyrant, Melese Zenawi, and our appeal to him in London in front of his office did not bear any fruit and if Tony Blair thinks Africa's problems would be solved by African Commission led by tyrants like Melese Zenawi he was naive.

Tony Blair is not a friend of ordinary Ethiopians andwe are glad to see him go and the bad seed he planted in Ethiopia soon will be thrown out by popular uprising.

I had a chance to call on the special program on BBC (May 10), world have your say , and told the world audience what most Ethiopians felt about Tony Blair's resignation.

We should come together on June 27 on the day he will step down to send a message to the coming prime minister, Mr. Brown , to reverse the disastrous policy of Tony Blair towards Ethiopia.

Tribute to a true journalist

Associated Press correspondent Anthony Mitchell was a true friend of Ethiopia. He lived and worked in Ethiopia for five years until he was expelled from the country by the Meles regime in January 2006. After his expulsion from Ethiopia, the Associated Press assigned him to Nairobi. It is a real tragedy that his post in Kenya led him to his death as one of the 114 passengers who were onboard the ill-fated Flight 507, which crashed in Cameroon on Saturday.
During the height of the post-election repressions, Anthony Mitchell wrote nothing but the truth, the whole truth. His courage to tell the world what was going on in Ethiopia under the tyranny of Meles Zenawi earned him respect and love among millions of Ethiopians in and outside of the country.
Desperate to hide its crimes, the tyrannical regime targeted true journalists like Anthony and all media outlets that exposed the dirty deeds of the regime. Any local journalists who had courageously told the truth were rounded up and thrown in harsh jails charged with "genocide and treason." Out of desperation, Meles and his cohorts went to the extent of trying to cross the Atlantic with a mission of silencing the Voice of America. To their dismay, that effort brought them ridicule and anger from the White House. Consequently, they were told by the American government to drop the frivolous charges against journalists of the VOA or face the music. Unashamedly, they had no choice but drop all the charges they concocted against the VOA further exposing the feebleness of Zenawi's courtroom dramas.
Anthony Mitchell was not kind enough to do a cover up job for the tyrannical regime as they would have liked him to. With a great sense of journalistic duty, he continued to tell stories with incision what Meles and his cohorts never wished the rest of the world to hear; human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, mass detentions and massive scale repressions.
In January 2006 Meles Zenawi's utter detest for the truth was very evident once again when he ordered the expulsion of Anthony Mitchell from Ethiopia, the tyrant's empire of injustice. According to the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) the government decided to expel Mitchell for "tarnishing the image of the nation repeatedly, contravening journalism ethics" and "disseminating information far from the truth about Ethiopia." However, there has been no agent or power who has tarnished the image of any country other than tyrants who commit crimes against humanity, unleash destruction and starve their people. In fact they were only expressing their allergy to the truth that Anthony Mitchell told with professionalism and utmost integrity.
As Andrew Heavens, who happened to be a friend of the late journalist, wrote on his popular blog Meskelsquare.com, "When a country kicks out a good journalist, the only real loser – in terms of reputation and coverage – is the country that did the kicking." As a result of the expulsion of Anthony, the Meles regime was once more exposed to a barrage of international criticism and condemnation that it has been addicted to. After all, it is a regime that has been committing all sorts of crimes and blames others for tarnishing its faceless image.
Death is unavoidable and inevitable to us all. However, one can surmise the fact that Anthony could not have been on the ill-fated flight had he been allowed to continue telling the truth with passion and honesty from Ethiopia where all true journalists have either been expelled, exiled or jailed.
Addis Voice would like to express its deep sadness over the loss of one true journalist who fearlessly told the truth at the expense of his personal comfort. Anthony’s death is a tremendous loss not only to Ethiopia but also to Africa where so many untold stories cry for true journalists.
May he rest in peace.

Addis Voice