Rally for policy change towards Ethiopia

Tedla Asfaw

The new Obama administration acting Secretary of African Affairs, Mark Philips , is currently travelling to Ethiopia. Mrs. Clinton, the Secretary of State will officially be to  State Department next Monday and we would like to welcome her.  On Monday February 9  Ethiopians will come together to denounce the last eighteen years of failed USA policy and call for the resignation of Meles Zenawi and his racist party TPLF immediately.

The protest in front of  the State department in D.C. at 10 am is our first in the new Obama administration and all Ethiopians are welcome. The mobilization of Ethiopians in the diaspora is the only option available to help our people realize the May 2005 hope that was squashed by the Meles killing squads.

Moreover, our people are currently living under military decree and can not come out and show their disgust to the ruling mafia for its  financiers, Europe and America. We would like the new Obama administration  help our people exercise their God given rights of free speech and assembly to be respected and not to listen  to our tormentors in power for the last eighteen years..

If we do not see tangible policy of change immediately we will expose this administration like we did in the past by organizing continuous protests until change comes and we are ready for that. Some who discourage us not to participate in anti- TPLF rally by bringing flimsy excuses about who organized the protest and nothing will come out from protest, I will remind them that such excuses are not accepted especially this time  when the grass movement of Americans  succeeded in putting African American for the first time while many including myself were thinking otherwise.

Yes we can influence Obama's policy towards  mother  Ethiopia and what we need is mobilization taking example from  Obama himself, yes our people have shown their readiness like Americans.  We would like to remind also President  Obama that if he had to run in office in Ethiopia by now he would have been  in jail or killed. We hope he will be with the Ethiopian people not with the unelected killers..

The missing D in Mrs. Clinton's speech at USAID

Tedla Asfaw


USA Secretary of States Mrs. Clinton in her recent United States  Agency for International Development(USAID) office appearance put the bench mark for the foreign engagement in the Obama administration.  Development, Diplomacy and Defense and are these really new  ? Not at all, the USAID has been for years functioning as a Development institution and if we saw the last USA administration it in fact talks more than the above three D's  adding D,  "Democracy" which I call the missing D in Mrs. Clinton speech.

Development assistance and  Diplomacy was used by President Clinton to pop up undemocratic government of Ethiopia in the 1980s. After September 11, 2001 the Bush administration gave priority for Defense and invested heavily on the tyrants in Ethiopia to conduct its own defensive war in Somalia. Development assistance better we call it  Food Aid  and war has been the trademark of our region for more than eighteen years.

The Defense Mrs. Clinton is talking about was also used by the Bush administration to kill democracy in Ethiopia and conducting a devastating war in  Eastern Ethiopia, Ogaden. The Defense and  Diplomacy was the major involvement of the past administration and if Mrs. Clinton is to follow the same track she is surely will fail.

The human right, the question of Democracy should be the benchmark for African USA policy. If Diplomacy is the code word to keep undemocratic regimes like that of Ethiopia by staging a make-believe election for foreign consumption it is not going to be new but the same old failed USA policy.

If Americans succeeded in electing the first African American president for the first time our continent should not be denied the fruit of free and fair election. Africans which some racists openly argue incapable to exercise these democratic rights have been proven wrong many times. The three D's Mrs. Clinton mentioned without Democracy the big D nothing will change for millions of Ethiopians. The recent election in Ghana should be a model for Obama administration and hiding this reality with a Diplomacy jargon is not helpful because Ethiopians have  tested democracy in 2005 and no diplomacy will force them to retreat and live under the tyranny that is using  Development/Food Aid efficiently to stay in power forever.

A free society is the engine of change be it Development, Defense and Diplomacy. In a tyranny these same Ds are used as a means to rule their subjects with the help of the taxpayers money of the West. Our struggle is to put the missing D in Mrs. Clinton speech, Democracy,  on the front and fight for our people right to live in a free society under the rule of law. That is the ultimate defense for USA and our people too.

Open letter to General Seye Abraha

Dear General Seye Abraha,

I  was one of those who wrongly believed after you were released from TPLF jail that you  will learn from your past mistakes and help the struggle to remove TPLF. My believe, however, was shattered after I read your few pieces in Amharic and recently followed your interview on VOA Amharic. Your assessment of the 2005 popular rejection of TPLF as if it never materialized and in fact blamed the opposition leaders lack of experience and played down the popular interest in exercising the right to vote was a red flag for me. It seems you are not ready for one person one vote if threatens your buddies/TPLF  who have been in power  for the last eighteen years. For you General, those who sacrificed  to remove Derg should always be a beneficiary of the wealth of the country as unquestionable reward, win for life. You never mentioned a word on who owns what and kept the secret of TPLF's wealth until now, the untouchable. That is the red line you will never cross to stay as a "free man".  You can  criticize the "revolutionary democracy'" of TPLF/EPRDF and blame some for dictatorship. Can I ask you a simple question General if I may. How much is your wealth  and can you make it public ? How comes the lives of the thousands of Ethiopians lost under your leadership in Badme's war in the late 1980s do not deserve your assessment while the 2005 election you did not participate deserves your criticism on radios and writings ? How comes a man who openly boasted as  "war maker" being  silent on the big war that he led with devastating consequence and not telling the truth is mind boggling for me and many Ethiopians. Doesn't democracy demand such accountability ? General Seye, if you are serious about the well being of millions of Ethiopians and not the very  few who have been on power for almost two decades, let you tell the whole truth on your soon coming "autobiography" and find millions of followers including myself to realize your future political dream..                                                                                               Thanks,                                                                                                                                                   Tedla Asfaw

Non-believers are coming once again !!!

Tedla Asfaw


I followed Ato Nejib an Ethiopian Muslim on Ethiopiawient Radio on Jan. 25 discussing this past week attack on fellow Ethiopian Muslims by hooligans  in Gonder. This is coinciding with Meles finalizing the giving away of our land from Metema to Gambella  for undisclosed amount of money for the butcher of Darfur, Behsir, who is soon will be dragged to International Criminal Court to face charges.

The attack on Gonder is also choreographed  by Cadre Paulos supporters who openly wore Tshirts insulting Muslims in Addis Ababa. A violent incident also happened in Dire Dawa on Ethiopian Christmas/Gena celebration few weeks ago. Surprisingly, Ethiopian Muslims and Christians thanks to the elders call for restraint  did not fall to the trap of non-believers/money worshipers, Meles and Cadre Paulos.

TPLF has played this religious card in the past  to divide our people many times and many lives were lost as a result of it.  However, the plan to divide our people as Christians and Muslims failed to materialize due to our people culture of tolerance which is tasted for thousands of years. The ethnic map of TPLF that was drawn eighteen years ago that  failed to dismantle our country  is now on its last phase of  religious war without boundary to keep us busy for coming years from north to south, east to west of Ethiopia.

Since the politically motivated census that under count big time Ethiopian  Muslims in the Diaspora Muslims rejected the census result as a politically motivated and fellow Ethiopian Christians also exposed the under counting of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians as a ploy by Cadre Paulos to divide Christians.

Both TPLF and Cadre Paulos'  main interest is to keep their regime in power to loot our poor country. Poor Ethiopians main problem is not spiritual but a dignified physical survival. The youth of Ethiopia that is encouraged to start war in cities and rural Ethiopia is jobless  paid by TPLF and Cadre Paulos to divert us from our united sruggle to remove TPLF from power.

It is time for the Diaspora Ethiopians to come together and expose this crime committed in the name of religion in our country by few non-believers  dividing our people to profit from our wealth and blood to rule us forever by fomenting religous hate which is unEthiopian.