Seye's Whole Experience!!

Tedla Asfaw

 

I read Adal Isaw's piece regarding last week three hours meeting of Ato Seye with the Ethiopian community posted on www.aigaforum.com  about which I have not seen so far any audio or transcript except  few minutes of summary on German Amharic and possibly next week by "Nesanet Le Ethiopia Radio" if they kept their promise and so far I have not heard anything about this meeting from VOA Amharic.

 

However, I read two papers from Dr. Kiros and Dr. Tekola and both applauded Seye for being straight forward and share his experience. Adal Isaw's piece is mainly focusing on the Badme war and he disagreed with Seye for suggesting not to be "subordinated" to the commander in chief and going all the way and "occupy" Eritrea.

 

From what I know so far Seye's aim was to remove Isayas from power and not to occupy Eritrea like TPLF/EPRDFis doing now in Somalia and Seye totally opposing it..  Seye surely is against Ethiopian army involvement in Somalia and deeply saddened, of course as a military man, and like most of us Ethiopian soldiers dragged in streets and does not see any national interest served by sacrificing our people there.

 

Regarding the Badme war Seye led ten years ago things would have been different now had Isayas  been thrown. At least Somali insurgent leaders would not find any hideout or their "Torabora". The power struggle which led to the purge of Seye and other TPLF members would have been concluded differently and may be Melese and his cliques would be out of power this time. Seye as a leader of EPRDF would have been different than Melese, hard to say.

 

The Badme and Somalia situations should not be singled out to judge Seye as the writer did. We should see the whole experience of Seye as TPLF fighter, on power position ,in jail and after he is out of jail and what he has learned so far.

 

I believe like so many others who were there in D.C last week Seye  did what he believed was right then and accept resopnisbilty and move on. Badme war is part of Seye and to be honest we are now where we were before Badme war and the war drum is beating on both sides and many Ethiopians asked why did we pay thousands of lives to be where we stared before the war and as the writer you should blame equally the commander in chief and asked him to resign if we had democracy in Ethiopia.

 

Eritrea is ruled by "one man for life" /Atse Isayas and Ethiopia is ruled by unelected and unpopular party and that is what we have to talk and avoiding these will not help us to resolve our problems. Until Ethiopians and Eritreans exercise their right to live in accountable  and elected government all kinds of wars in our name whether for occupation or regime change will neither bring peace nor stability in our region and it seems to me that Seye has learned this and  now embarking on a new "non military" mission to help our country and we should  welcome him.

Can we make Seattle to be the First "Kinijit" Primary??

Last night, on New Hampshire Primary, here in USA we watched a thriller. Obama was predicted to win in early polls and when the sun sets things start to change and before we go to bed Clinton won in a narrow margin and her supporters were excited, "the come back kid" .

After this excitement this morning I saw an Ad. for the coming meeting in Seattle for "Kinijit" one in Jan. 12 with Ato Debebe and Jan. 13 with Eng. Hailu. The closeness of the day whether it is accidental or by design I do not know.

However, most Ethiopians will go to one of the meetings and few will go to both meetings if the
meeting area is close. It is going to be a show down between these two Kinijit factions, Ato Debebe representing one faction and Eng. Hailu representing his faction.

Seattle could make history by bringing both Hailu and Debebe in one hall like last week in D.C when Seye came to address the divided Ethiopian community.

The three hours meeting in D.C was exemplary. Do we believe Eng. Hailu and Ato Debebe are enemies never to talk to each other? Not at all, they might have differences like Hilary and Obama but the final goal is to give leadership to the Ethiopian peoples struggle.

Ethiopians are following the USA election closely and they will ask all of us one question. Is that true may be Democracy and Election is foreign to Africans and we have to "grow slowly"?

However, this question once and for all was answered on Miazia/May 2005 in Addis Ababa and even foreigners stop lecturing us about "growing slowly".

We have a well disciplined people in Ethiopia waiting for leadership and we have to come to this challenge and let Seattle be its birth place.

Jendayi Frazer, a friend of cheaters !!!

Tedla Asfaw

 

Jendayi Frazer, USA diplomat,  once again stood with the cheaters in Kenya like she did in May 2005 with the Ethiopian regime who stole election by killing protesters in the streets of Addis Ababa who went out for their voices to be heard.

 

Mr. Raila Odinga the opposition leader called off the planned street protest to pressure the regime to step down and the peoples vote to be respected after he talked to Jendayi Frazer of USA. Similar pressure was exerted by the USA Ambassadors to sabotage Ethiopians right to protest by organizing a meeting with the opposition leaders and we now know that was a big blunder by opposition leaders and they now regret it.

 

The Kenyan opposition pressured to call off street protest and go to Kibakli's court by Jendayi Frazer is unjust and the millions who voted against Kibaki know that very well and Kenyans opposition are going to repeat what Ethiopians opposition did almost three years ago.

 

By equating public protest with violence our peoples right to protest is denied and that is good news for African dictators. Denying this right will open a door for armed rebellion and that is why many army officers and young activists are now joining armed resistance in all the corners of Ethiopia.

 

Jendayi Frazer is also equating the right to raise arms to defend once interest as "terrorism" and I wonder what right she is prescribing for millions whose vote are stolen in Kenya,Ethiopia and somewhere else to do.

 

Are we going to ask USA to "liberate us" from tyranny? That is not an  option if your country has no natural resources like Iraq and on top of that USA military will be stretched doing all these "liberation" with tax payers money because there is not enough money to liberate all of us.

 

The shortsighted USA foreign policy in the Horn of Africa by standing with the known killers and human right abusers of the region will only  force our people to fight for freedom. Jendayi Frazer is working for her country's interest and she care less about freedom and what she achieved on her Kenya's visit  is "quite" Kenya to do business for foreigners.

 

Mwai Kibaki will be in power until he turns eighty years old and the Kenyan people anger that cost 500 people lives will be forgotten soon and tourists will flock to Kenya, that is what Jendayi Frazer will call it freedom and democracy, African style.

Ato Seye Abrha deserves to be heard

Tedla Asfaw

 

The ethiopianreview.com Ato Elias Kifle is suggesting to boycott the meeting of Ato Seye Abraha with the Ethiopian Community next week and this effort similar to the boycott he organized against Engineer Hailu's gathering will fail miserably.

 

Ato Elias accused Ato Seye Abraha for his role as a senior TPLF fighter before he was purged from TPLF after the military victory he led in the Badme war ten years ago with a trumpeted charge of corruption by Melese Zenawi and  spent six years in jail.

 

While in jail he  witnessed what his former buddies were doing to Ethiopia and its citizens and told  Ethiopians on VOA and German Amharic Radio the truth after he was released and wanted to serve his people for the remaining of his life.

 

Here in the Diaspora we did not throw a frenzy celebration for his coming and it is understandable but it is not acceptable to reject him like Ato Elias suggested as enemy of Ethiopia. Seye has a lot to say even if we by now we know his stand on the current stalemate of Ethiopian politics he deserves to be heard.

 

The Ethiopian people are now at crossroads and we can not put our hope on one party like "Kinijit" which has now four owners and the best way to move is learn form our mistakes and move, heroes and heroin will be born on the way and nobody is born with those qualities.

 

Seye is a man of experience and will be a mistake if we push him not to serve his country by denying him a platform and encourage him to lead a comfortable life in exile  similar to most of us and becomes irrelevant.

 

Ato Seye might not be "hero" for Ato Elias Kifle and some, that judgment should be left for each and one of us who are capable to make  as for me even if I did not welcome him on the airport I will be glad to hear and see him man to man.