On the Question of Nationalities in Ethiopia

On the Question of Nationalities in Ethiopia

By Walleligne MekonnenArts IV, HSIU – Nov. 17, 1969

The main purpose of this article is to provoke discussions on the “sacred”, yet very important issue of this country-the Question of Nationalities. The article as it was prepared for a special occasion (where detailed analysis was due time and other inconveniences impossible) suffers from generalizations and inadequate analysis. But I still feel it is not mediocre for a beginning. I expect my readers to avoid the temptation of snatching phrases out of their context and capitalizing on them. Instead every point raised here should be examined in the light of the whole analysis.

OLA unit defects: Where does the buck finally stop?

OLA unit defects: so where does the buck finally stop?

By Gumaa Guddaa

“The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization.” Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers.

Ethiopia law forces journalists to reveal sources

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – Ethiopia's new anti-terror law strips journalists of the right to protect the identity of their sources, a top official said in a statement carried Saturday by the national news agency ENA.

OLF is awaking its Enemies

OLF is awaking its Enemies

WHAT HAS GONE WRONG, BY WHOM AND HOW CAN WE FIX IT??

OLF CRISES: The past and the Present;Reconciliation as a way forward

When we look at the path followed by the Oromo national struggle over the past few decades, we realize that our national struggle was made to go through Dark Age and OLF as a political party has been turned into a kind of organization which George Orwell described in his book titled Animal Farm. Marginalization on region, religion and other elements are chronic. Blackmailing individuals on false allegation is becoming an art to excel with. Things have been taking wrong direction with devastating outcomes.

To begin with, the path our national struggle followed in the past few decades is full of unbelievably distorted realities. Some of the distortion were/are purposely planned by few people within the circle of our leaders in the Oromo national struggle to reach certain selfish end goals. The current crises within OLF, other Oromo based political parties and the Oromo society at large is partly the result of purposely designed strategies by few elites (most of them in leadership for over decades) in an attempt to take the default leadership of Oromo nationals struggle. It seems that these leaders are also aspiring to replace the Amahara/Tigre leadership of Ethiopia . To achieve such narrow goals, these leaders employed a divisive Abyssinian type leadership, i.e, divide and rule strategy.
It is painful to all of us to mention that these people mobilized Oromo nationals on the basis of region, religion etc and exploited the difference between Oromos from different regional and regional background to create mistrust, confusion, suspicion, and disunity to achieve their narrow goals of sole control over OLF and to take Ethiopian power after independence.

In my understanding, regional originality, in what ever form can never be a virtue to be proud of. Our people from West have developed a mentality of being superior Oromos and paraded themselves to be highly civilized and torchbearers of the Oromo national struggle. This mentality of them however did not save them from acting in an immoral, uncivilized and divisive way that resulted in cruel deeds to our national struggle. Though they perfectly understand the genesis of Oromo national struggle, where the seed of the struggle germinated and by who, they preferred to deny the truth and create fabricated lies (similar to the 3000 historical myth of Abyssinians) to confuse Oromo mass and develop a fake history that they are torchbearers in the Oromo national struggle. It is a fight initiated out of inferiority complex and the fight is to take credit in the past achievements of the OLF control in future. History tells how OLF has been performing since such chauvinist elites took leadership of the Oromo national struggle.
Such mentality of them did not only discourage Oromo nationals and compatriots, but created mistrust among the leaders themselves and Oromo mass at large. It is a major contributing factor for the decreasing unity among Oromos, stagnation of Oromo national struggle and more importantly it served as an opportunity for our enemies to easily penetrate our leadership circles.
Oromians from different parts of Oromia became victims of such extremely subtle strategies of marginalization. Oromos from different region are given a position that they don’t deserve in the national struggle due to such deliberately orchestrated marginalization. In their attempt to take credit of who established OLF, these Oromo elites trashed the contribution of Oromos outside their narrow circle as none. For instance, the contributions of Shoa Oromos in fighting the injustice of Ethiopian regime from the early time of occupation to the time OLF emerged as political party was/is deliberately ignored and Shoa Oromos were /are often referred to as Amaharas by such chauvinist leaders. As a matter of fact, the emergence of OLF out of Macha and Tullama Self Help Association by itself is a clear evidence of how OLF came into being. It is only possible to deny that fact out of voluntary ignorance. Some leaders have voluntarily denied the contribution of Shoa Oromo to the national struggle and preferred to discourage them. It is not uncommon to hear such chauvinist referring to Oromos from central Oromia as Amahara. Such ill-intended techniques were used by few vicious and selfish leaders to completely discourage Oromo nationals from other regions. It the awareness of such painful marginalization that drove out most Oromians out of OLF and made them distance observers of the ongoing national struggle. This finally led OLF to enter into political crises it is suffering over years.
To mention an example, many active members OLF were deliberately referred to as members of IBSO , QC , AWO, etc, when these Oromo nationals are/were actually active members of the OLF who met their membership obligation and responsibilities. These kinds of tags (labels) are deliberate stigmatization techniques aimed at incapacitating individuals and erode his/her moral confidence in OLF and thus force them leave the organization for good thereby leaving the leaders comfortable on their throne without any opposition.

What transformed OLF leaders into this?

At the early stage OLF leadership was good. Its flag bear ODA, a single unifying icon under which Oroms organized themselves with near absolute unity and crushed their enemies over centuries. Having carried such unifying spirit, OLF won the support of almost all Oromo within the empire and all over the world. As OLF grew to national party representing Oromos, its leadership gradually abandoned the principles that made OLF great, until today OLF entered a tragic situation. The leaders of OLF through time evolved into bad leaders; bad to ignore the concern of their own people, bad to employ divisive strategies for their selfish end goals, bad to love revenge than reconciliation with Oromos of different opinion. They preferred to forget the Gada principle, where a leader assumed leadership based on merit and achievements. They preferred to cling to power beyond their rightful terms. More importantly, they preferred to ignore “SAFUU OROMOO”, the source of all morality and discipline in Oromo social institutions.
Gradually, as OLF become more and more popular, selfishness in all its forms crept into the organization. The Gada virtue of honesty, condor, trust, brotherhood and patriotism slowly withered and authoritarian style leadership replaced it. Nepotism replaced merit. What was left in OLF at last seems to be a collection of people whom neither the vices of the cruel Ethiopian regime on the Oromo people nor an increasing open hatred among the Oromos could shake out their apathy.

One may ask himself/herself, why are these things happening to the OLF? But that is a wrong question. The question should have been who has brought OLF to the edge of destruction?

In my opinion, our leaders are to be blamed and are responsible for OLF’s current situation and for what is happening in the Oromo mass at large today. OLF and our national struggle had been made to go through Dark Age by leaders whom I mentioned above. These leaders don’t want being replaced by some one who is clear sighted than them. They are deadly in awe of changes that may remove them from control. To prolong their influence in the Oromo politics, they devised evil strategies, which over a period of time made OLF loose its prominent members and decline in strength. This evil strategy is a carbon copy of the Abyssinian divide and rule strategy. This time it is used by people of Oromo blood to divide Oromo people deliberately. The strategy was implemented in a subtle way on the basis of region, religion and ideological differences.
Oromo nationals who criticized and opposed such ill-intended leadership style were technically attacked and destroyed. By maliciously impressing the ignorant, unprivileged and uneducated Oromo mass with idea that “so and so is an ‘Ethiopian agent’, ‘a traitor’, anti- OLF’, ‘an enemy’, ‘spy’, ‘regionalist’ etc,” those elites within the OLF leadership managed to destroy Oromo nationals through blackmailing and character assassination. When the actual perpetrators of regionalism are the leaders themselves, they use the same regionalism tag to blackmail their critics and dissidents.
By employing such subtle ill-intended strategies, the few elites within OLF leadership successfully paralyzed the moral and patriotic spirit of Oromo nationals whom they perceive as a threat to them and thus managed to recycle the OLF leadership baton within few individuals loyal to each other.

These are not true leaders in my understanding of leadership. True leaders love liberty and believe in the equality of all people under their leadership. They reject such regional prejudices in favor of equality of all people regardless of their regional backgrounds. They love fellow Oromos regardless of religion, region, or ideological differences. Lack of such leaders is what brought OLF into its current crises. Lack of such leader is what made it possible for hatred to engulf our people at an alarming rate and gradual stagnation of our national struggle.
Over a period of time these leaders have had/have transformed OLF into a kind of organization which George Orwell described in his book titled Animal Farm, where the main principle is that ‘All people are equal but other people are more equal”. Nepotism and moral corruption are severe in OLF today. People are promoted not on the basis of merit and achievements but on closeness to some one and degree of loyalty. Individuals who are unconditionally loyal to leaders are appreciated whereas those sticking to truth, principle and the rule of law are discouraged. OLF as a political party is no more interested in courageous individuals acting out of conviction. They are in great need of submissive creature prepared to change their opinion whenever necessary. Collections of such cliques have done more harm than good to OLF and the Oromo national struggle. Such cliques, operating under the command of their masters, have successfully divided our community along clan lines. This terrible negative strategy where OLF mobilized its supporters on the basis of region and clan was admitted in public by one top OLF leader, Mr. KUMSA in 2004 in Nairobi . He disclosed in a public gathering when Oromos in Nairobi were on the edge of clash due to the divisive political strategy that OLF followed during that period. He openly apologized for the mistake done. He was one single courageous individual to do that. Tragically, four years down the time line, the situation culminated in a violent fight between Oromos from Arsi and Harargehe. The situation was worsened by the presence of political activists from other political organizations like AWO and OPLF who added fuel to an already burning fire. I never have witnessed any thing painful and hurting to my national feeling than that in my life time
When I think about the position assigned to Oromos from central Oromia and others, by few chauvinist elites that dominated the OLF leadership, my heart seems to burst under the weight of grief, sorrow and pain. The unjust treatment of Geresu Tufa, a visionary young leader, after he was taken to Asmara best exemplifies how some people from Shoa are suspected and given the tag of spy, enemy, ect, in spite of their contribution to the on going national struggle.
Let me say few point about this patriotic Oromo national. While in Ethiopia, Geresu mobilized Oromo students in Addis Ababa University and served as chairperson of Oromo students. He committed his time and took the risk of organizing Oromo students from university level to high school and elementary school level under the nose of TPLF. He was front runner in all Oromo students’ affairs and demonstrations that were mobilized against the TPLF government.
After he fled to Kenya , he established East Africa Oromo Students Movement together with his fellow university students who flee Ethiopia after the April 2001 student demonstration in Addis Ababa University . Through their movement they were able to mobilize Oromo students both at home and in different parts of the world.
At the time when OLF created political and social confusion in Nairobi in 2001, Geresu was the first courageous young activist who took the initiative to paralyze the then ongoing confusion. Through continuous meeting with Oromo community, Geresu and his fellow Oromo students in Nairobi were able to restore the eroded confidence of Oromo community on OLF. Above all, he decided to commit his life to the Oromo people’s national struggle and accepted a call from Oromo Liberation Front and went to Asmara .
Tragically, for some reason known to OLF leaders alone, he was made to suffer unimaginable character assassination and blackmailing that he does not deserve. Worst of all, he was put in an open prison in foreign land and suffer moral degradation. For me, it simply indicates the incarnation of evil and wickedness in our leadership sphere. A rational person cannot do this. I understand that reason serves both evil and good. Our leaders, I think, are ‘rational’ both when they invited Geresu to the field of national struggle and when they decided to destroy him. I hope you remember that those members of the Dergue red terror who put hundreds of thousands of youth to death did their cruel and gruesome act in the belief that they were serving the right cause and acting rationally. Interestingly, such people are not naturally evil, but are victim of their own ignorance. They are victims of their narrow ideology that does not tolerate and give space for others with different world outlook. They do such evil out of fear, fear of being eliminated and replaced by people who they see as their opponents. It was out of such painful feeling about this committed Oromo national that some Oromo nationals took the risk of writing petition to the Eritrean government on behalf of him and other university students who were kept captive in Eritrea for unclear reason.
The case of Geresu represents just one case among tens of thousands of Oromo nationals who became victims of deliberate character assassination and marginalization by these handful individuals. Thousands of Oromo nationals in Diaspora are nursing such broken hearts and if we don’t stop it now, this evil will keep on destroying hundreds and thousands of clean hearted Oromo nationals and thus leaving morally corrupt people in the OLF.
It is an obvious fact that one can not prepare for the future without clarifying the past. There are always prices to be paid in changing the past evil with what we believe is right for our nation. It involves practically participating in the existing situation, observing what is going on, making comparisons and choices and reaching a reasonable decision that can be a solution for the past evils. Many Oromo nationals have now seen all the evils, the goods, the strength and the weaknesses within the process of our national struggle and made meaning out of it. Many of them took the risk of participating in the challenging phases of our national struggle in spite of all the problems that they have been facing and other Oromo nationals have been facing. They have sacrificed their time, their knowledge and personal gains and opportunities with firm stand to bring our national struggle to the successful end. By doing that they left us with a legacy to be proud of and with a spirit to continue on the line of their noble works.
Their experience clearly shows that we are not only fighting the evil of the Ethiopian state, but also the perpetrators of ignorance and evil within us as well. It clearly shows that there are perpetrators of evil and ignorance within us at the very time we are fighting the evils and injustice of Ethiopian empire. It is a pity to reproduce the same evil that we are fighting.

Reconciliation As A Solution
In spite of the organization crises, low morals in our leaders and mistrust among Oromo community, Oromo people are still optimistic that the situation will change for good. The future is in our hand. I believe we have an ideal to live for; the ideal to be free as human society, the ideal to retain our lost identity, the ideal to revive our degraded culture, and the ideal to be a free nation.
To realize our ideals, we must do every thing possible to sweep away the past so as to build the future. It starts from you and me. Our painful understanding of marginalization within the Oromo national struggle in the past should not discourage us from positively contributing to the on going national struggle. However, we should not allow the past mistakes continue hurting more and more people. We should ask ourselves why are we so marginalized and how can we stop it? We must answer both questions to understand the root cause of the problem and also to device a mechanism by which we can contain it.
It is therefore up to me and you to get rid of the mentality created in us by others, the mentality that Shoa/Arsi/Bale.. e.t.c. are an outsider to the Oromo national struggle. It is only when we perfectly identify our role in the ongoing national struggle and the credit others gave us that we can make positive contribution to our struggle.
Personally, I understand that it is not out of natural order to have a strong ARSI/SHOA/HARARGEHE, etc. community before having a strong Oromo community. The opposite is impossible, that is, having a strong Oromo community before having strong Arsi/Shoa/HARARGEHE community. The base of all social organization starts at family level and from there it goes to higher and wider level of social organization. In the past, our leaders misused this grass root approach of organizing people based on their regional originality for their narrow and selfish ends. Their intention was not to build strong community, but to have absolute control over them by using the difference between people from different region.
As a solution to challenge leadership catastrophes, concerned Oromo nationals began to call for community development based on their regional Origin (Arsi, Shoa, Harargehe,.. etc). This call for strong solidarity is being seen as a threat to Oromo unity by leaders who previously used the same base of social structure to mobilize community to attain absolute control. They began to see it as a step taken with regionalism urge. They began to see it as an evil undertaking that targeted the unity of Oromo people. The move can be wrong when one use such approach of mobilizing people for negative ends, like the one I mentioned previously. They want to accuse Oromians of getting together on regionalism basis and try to assign the position they don’t deserve in the national struggle.

In spite of all the evils we are in, our national struggle is still picking momentum, because there are many true Oromo nationals who have never given up and surrender to all vices that have infested our national struggle. I firmly believe that we shall take our national struggle to a successful end but only when we take the risk of accepting our past weakness and call for reformation and reconciliation. We must therefore be able to close the old chapter of the past and begin a new one with new spirit.
I believe that fighting the past evil with another evil can only lead us to further destruction of our nation and our genuine cause. I therefore, out of concern to save our nation from further crises, call on all concerned Oromo nationals and leaders to work on a way towards reconciliation among Oromians and create the spirit of belongingness and unity among us.

Gada Oda

Conspiracy of the Eritrean government against Oromo national struggle

THE FIRST CONSPIRACY

After Dergu was ousted by popular forces, EPLF led Eritrean to referendum and Eritrea became an independent state. The next question of the EPLF at that time was how to rebuild Eritrea . The new born nation was torn by war and had no sufficient national resource. The most plausible step to take was to get access to Ethiopia for more resources to be taken to Eritrea .
TPLF, being a laboratory product of Eritrea , had no gut to say no to Eritrean dream at that time for many reasons. First, TPLF had no political ground in Ethiopia at that time. Second OLF was getting more popularity than TPLF through out Oromia. For TPLF to consolidate its power and for Eritrean to get access to Ethiopians large national resource, the two secret friends decided to play a political maneuver against OLF. Destroying OLF for once and for all or weakening it was their primary agenda.
In 1991-1992 transition period, Eritrea and the Meles regime strengthen their relation. Among other things, Eritrean deployed her soldiers to enforce the encampment policy of Oromo liberation army (OLA). By doing that Eritrea soldiers not only were able to know the number of OLF soldiers but got all necessary information about the military status of OLF.

The Evil Mission

Though she miscalculated the consequence, Eritrea decided to destroy the OLF for her mission of looting the Oromo national resource. To satisfy her wild ambition, Eritrea participated in the mass massacre of WBO which was already disarmed. WBO was disarmed in accordance with the agreement made for the establishment of transitional government. Disarmament of OLA (Oromo Liberation Army) by itself was a secret plan for the successful mission of destroying OLF from the very beginning. The two forces, the TPLF and EPLF collaborated to destroy the Oromo freedom fighters. They secretly planned and implemented their hidden agenda of re-colonizing the Oromo nation, this time by the Tigre children. They brutally aborted the Oromo nation’s aspiration for freedom. Eritrea did not only participate in destroying Oromo liberation forces, but also in incarcerating and torturing hundreds of thousands of Oromo nationals, killing innocent Oromo nationals for supporting OLF, raping Oromo girls and women, looting properties of Oromo nationals who supported the OLF, and made tens of thousands of Oromo nationals to flee from their home country.






The exodus of Eritrean

A famous Oromo proverb says thieves fight in sharing what they stole. That was what happened in 1998 when Eritrean and TPLF went into that bloody war. After OLF was successfully driven out of the country, Eritrea launched her economic mission covertly and overtly in Ethiopia . Eritrea nationals not only become economic giants but they also became dominant political icons in Ethiopia . As a nation, Eritrea was included into the list of countries which export quality coffee to the international coffee market. (To help you appreciate this fact no single coffee tree grows on Eritrea soil).In Ethiopa, Eritrean owned hotels, jewelries, spare parts, snacks, banks, construction companies, consultancy services, transport companies, oil distributors, transporters and other looting mechanisms.
Apart from this economic dominance, Eritrean nationals proudly overlooked native Ethiopians. With contempt they continued telling the natives that Eritrean are the best race. In situations of conflict, Eritrean had no problem. They can intimidate the natives by brandishing their pistols. They can even call a TPLF soldier, security or police and the poor Ethiopian was only at the mercy of the Eritrean to be released from jail for making such an offence against an Eritrean citizen. In fact Eritrean were ‘proud’ enough to tell the Tigres from south Eritrea that they are only “ Agame”, whom Eritrean hire just for fetching water in Asmara, not for any thing more important.

Yes, the contempt that Eritrean had for TPLF soldiers and for “ Agames” in general annoyed the ‘Agames” from time to time. More importantly, “ Agames were not able to scoop the Ethiopian economy as smartly as Eritrean. They felt their share is getting thinner, because Eritrean were very smart in scooping. The guys from Eritrea do business internationally. They control the sea port, red sea. So they pay no tax at the port. Things were different for ‘Agames’ and even harder for other native Ethiopians who are obliged to pay taxes. Some times their products are deliberately made late at the port and the cost of making business became very high for them. At last they lose the game to Eritrean. The Malasa government had to do something or they would loss the game in the long run at all. So, they fabricated that border war in which hundred of thousands of innocent Ethiopian lost their live and a good sum of national economy was destroyed. Ethiopian youth were used as human machinery to run over the explosives and mines of Eritrea . Who won the war? Only the two cousins know it.

Regretted?! If Isayas AFOWARKI could turn the hands of time!

TPLF called on to the one Ethiopia sentiment ( Ethiophiawinet) of the Amahara to get national support to fight the war against Eritrea . It conscripted hundreds of thousands of unemployed and poverty stricken youth into national service, promising them high salary. They had no option. The youth opted for the lesser evil. Others were forced by gun. Using these human machinery, they were able to drive Eritrea out.

Eritrea did not only lose the military war to Ethiopia . The greatest loss was that of economy. The transition period Eritrean millionaires lost the wealth they earned though looting to the ‘Agames’. Kalas!!!!!! Ye naqut Yasregizal!!!!!! ‘Agames’ grabbed the Eritrean wealth by nationalizing it or by other techniques.
It is unfortunate that some innocent Eritrean also became the victim of such vicious plans.
Later, Mr. Isayas must have been regretted for cracking a deal with his ‘inferiors’ who are not true to their words. He must have regretted because his cousin ( Malasa) did not live to a gentle men agreement.

Looking for a Trojan horse!!!

The second conspiracy of the Eritrean Dictator against the Oromo people’s national struggle for freedom started at the time when Eritrea started war with Ethiopia. Having seen the “inferior” people gave them a bloody nose, Eritrean leaders started a way to revenge Malasa, maintain their dominance in Ethiopia  and get access to the Ethiopians vast natural resource. To achieve this, they surely needed a Trojan horse.

Candidate Trojan horses of the Time:

Amahara based Political forces
Somali based political forces
South nations and Nationality based political forces.
Oromo based political forces

Isayas considered all options one by one and picked the one that suited his requirement at that time (1998). Amharas were blinded by the new call of Mallasa government on Ethiopianism and they even began talking of annexing back Eritrea to Ethiopia . Some Dergu military personnel who were recalled back to serve in the national service started speaking in public that their last destination in the war would be Mitsuwa, the Eritrean port. Isayas, thus could not make any undertaking with Amahara political organizations at that time. Somalis and south nations and nationalities were not good choice either. The only option was to persuade the OLF. But how, after they destroyed us?!!!

Conspiracy No.2

Shabiya had been following merciless kill and survive strategy through out her history. She successfully exterminated her enemies and totally destroyed or paralyzed most of her political opponents. Having seen her vicious tactics, OLA leaders were not willing to accept Eritrean proposal of hosting the Oromo liberation struggle, at the beginning. But Isayas had to play his divide and conquer policy against our leaders. That is when he implemented his conspiracy No.2 against our national struggle. He successfully divided Oromo leaders (Oromo Liberation Army for that matter), financed both group so that they weaken each other and took home the group that he believed could suit his future mission. Isayas successfully germinated a seed of hatred among brothers. Oromo liberation fighters fought each other, killed each other, and destroyed each other. Since then, the evil seed grew into avalanches of evils to shake Oromo unity. Division in OLF continued. Now Shabiya can easily monitor our struggle. Can OLF have an Organization secret hidden from Shabiya at all? They can tap every telephone OLF people use, monitor all electronic mails. Thus, they can control every single bit of Oromo struggle, even to the advantage of Malasa.

From 1999-2002, Eritrea succeded in dividing OLF into two factions; a conservative group led by Galasa Dilbo and a reactionary group led by Daod Ibsa. The two groups continued wedging cyber war against each other, one group dismissing the other group  of not representing the interest of Oromo people.  After five years in Asmara OLF(shane) made no progress both in military strength and politically. Indeed , unwittingly, perhaps out of desperation, the OLF_ Shane  Gumi made unholy alliance with Abyssinian  CUD and suffered loss of confidence among most of its remaining base members and supporters. Their alliance with CUD also provided the Dhugasa group with an opportunity to discredit the SHANE group as sellouts. By 2007, both OLF factions existed only nominally.
 The arrival in Asmara of two former OPDO  general along with several soldiers who run away from Ethiopia army injected new hope that the OLF may use the opportunity to renew its military attack against the colonial government of Ethiopia. That hope lived short when OLF leaders unwittingly promoted the traitor general to a high ranking commander of  Oromo Liberation Army. The assignment  of Kamal Galchu to high ranking position in OLA not only discouraged senior OLA commanders but also  sent a warning signal to the Eritrean government. In case OLF succeed under the command of the OPDO general, Eritrea may lose control of the OLF. That is not a desirable scenario of course.  At any cost, Kamal must be dealt with to make sure he is useless in the OLF camp.
Until 2008, Kamal learned the political environment in Asmara. Asmara provided him with a blue print of  hatching split in the OLF. In 2008, he doctored the split of the OLF-J from OLF -SHANE GUMII. By 2010, in a very surprising move, a splinter group from OLF-J, led by Licho Bukura , surrendered to the Ethiopian government, along with several OLF soldiers in the South WBO zone. The remaining OLF-J under the command of Kamal Galchu continued weakening the Oromo Liberation Front, until January 1, 2012. On January 1,2012, the Kamal Galchu group disclosed its hidden agenda to the public. The group shamelessly declared to the world that the national struggle of  Oromo people for freedom has ended. Asmara can stop this group, if she wishes to. If Asmara support the Oromo national cause, is it not logical to for them to stop such malicious act being hatched against the Oromo cause on their soil? It is evident that while Eritrea does not want to lose both groups, she is viciously manipulating the situation to promote her own selfish interest, without any concern for the progress of the Oromo national struggle.

Our National struggle is taken hostage!!

The question that every Oromo must ask himself/herself today is whether we as a nation are in control of our national struggle or whether somebody else is in control of it. After OLF leadership made Asmara its centre, OLF launched a number of missions against TPLF. Most/all of these missions were not successful. OLF surprised us only by sacrificing prominent military figures who could have led the organization to better political level and hundreds of brave Oromo children were scarified without any achievements.
The unholy coalition made between CUD and the OLF only amplified my suspicions that Eritrean overtook the OLF leadership completely, telling us what to do, how to do and when to do and with whom to do!!!!!
Now, we may talk about OLF’s achievement in terms of diplomacy, that the West may give us attention as we made a paradigm shift in thinking and leadership strategy. However, we must ask ourselves, what is the consequence of this decision on the coming generation, the generation that is fighting teeth and bone with TPLF at home? Why to give up? Even Somaliya Islamic court is becoming a government regardless of America ’s pressure and condemnations! What do we lack to fight our enemy at home?
At last I call onto all Oromo nationals of free will to urge the Eritrea government to stop its conspiracy against our national struggle. I also call on OLF leadership to distance it self from this vicious enemy which is worse than TPLF.

Injiffannoon uummata Oromoof!!!!!
Gada Oda

They are still our slaves

For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading this morning on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it.

Dee Lee, CFP Harvard Financial Educators Dee Lee

THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blackswithout the effort of physical slavery Look at the current methods ofcontainment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS. Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said,"The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book." Wenow live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read anybook on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet theyrefuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes& Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores thatprovide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have beentheir fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all. GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolitionof slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year theyspent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars intotal yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture wecare to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Beingprimarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continuallywant more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU,And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them"Status" or that they have achieved their Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to seehuge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeeredthem, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the fools spend morewith him than ever before!). They'll continue to show off to each other whilewe build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we marketto them. SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the majorways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that therewas an innate division in their culture. A "Talented Tenth" he called it. Hewas correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that hasachieved some "form" of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read thatthe "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented NinetyPercent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created anotherclass, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in acondescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow themto be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When theydo get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of theirgoal Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote theirname without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, andtalk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers,not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastlyrefuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other because ofwhat they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or twopay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens inour offices and our rooms. Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to re ad,continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" theircommunities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than holdlavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of themreading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!! (Prove them wrong. Please pass this on! After Reading it..)

HINTS ON THE RELIGIONS OF MASAANUU FAMILY BROTHERS

By Getachew Chemeda (Taken from ONA mailig list)

HINTS ON THE RELIGIONS OF MASAANUU FAMILY BROTHERS
" For the God of Israel is the God of Christiandom and the God of Islam and Judaism is the source of these two great Religion" According to the Old Testament, which is purely Jewish history and story, Abraham was the father of the revealed religion of Judaism. He was also the head of Mana Masaanuu family structure. Sarah is believed to be his first 'legal' wife. By the order of the Lord, Abraham and Sarah departed from their birth place, Ur, to Canaan, the land of honey and milk which was similar to the ancient land of Abbaa Muudaa Oromoo before masanaau religions colonised it.
However, Sarah and Abraham were not blessed with fertility, that means, they were not able to bear successor.According to the Old Testament, Sarah asked her husband to go to her maidservant, named Hagar, to try to beget a successor. He answered her question happily. Within days of contact,Hagar was blessed with a baby in her womb. She gave birth to a son whose Jewish name was Ishmael and Arabic name Ismael. After Ismael was born, Sarah became an envious woman against the fertility of her maidservant, Hagar. She was very regret of her initial command of urging her husband to go to Hagar in search for a successor.Now Hagar,as a mother of a son, is serving Abraham as a co-wife. It was by this time that the Lord intervened to mediate the envious Sarah by blessing her womb after she went over a childbearing age. She was rerwarded a baby in her womb when Abraham was 100 years old. A son, whose Jewish name was Isaac and Arabic name, Ishaq was born to Abraham and Sarah by the will of their Revealed God. According to this story, Abraham became the centre of two antagonstic masaanuu wives,the Mother of Ismael,Hagar and the mother of Isaac, Sarah. The hatred, jealousy and conflicts stared between the wives have been inherited by their children and grandchildren, and continued to crack the houses of Ismael's and Isaac's descendants to this very days. Two young men from the two houses, who claimed to be messengers of God,emerged and invented two masanuu religions one after another, using Judaism as the source of their own version of revelations. Jesus from the house of Isaac was responsible for the creation of what lastly came to be known as Christianity. After ca. 570 years of the birth of Jesus Christ, Muhammad was born from the house of Ishaq and launched a new version of Judaism, Islam, as a true religion of Ibrahim. Retaliation instead of reconciliation, violence instead of peace, jealousy instead of harmony etc.have become the precious values and civilised manner ofthese mana masaanuu families of nations. Part One Christianity: The Elder Masaanuu Brother of Islam Judaism is the father of Christianity and Islam. Christianity was born first, angafa and Islam was born later,qixisuu.Individuals who were causes for the creation of these two religions were born to different mothers of different social status status as indicated above. Gradually, after the death of Jesus Christ, Christianity developed as a doctrinal belief of those who have been following the Good News of the Christ as a salvation from their sin. Hence, Jesus's followers beared the collective name "Christian" to separate themselves from the 'heathens or pagans'. However, the first followers of Jesus Christ were claiming Christian being a 'God-given' name to them as a chosen people. Christianity owed its remarkable expansion around the world to old European colonialists of Portugal,Spain and Holland who planted into the soils of Africa, Latin America and the Far East. Ultimately, Christianity has come to serve as a soul father of the colonialists in building empires, expanding territories, extracting raw matrials and slaves from their colonies.Through the colonialists, it continued to stunt indigenous psychology of indigenous peoples of Africa, North and South Amercican natives, using the Holy Book of the Lord as a soundless sword.In Oromoland, Abyssinian colonialists are responsible for planting Orthodoxy as an ideological weapon to bedevil Oromo natural religion, Waqeffannaa, and to kill Oromo's indigenous democracy, the Gada Sytem. JESUS:- From Carpentry to Crucifixion In the Roman occupied country of Abraham's children, Jesus was born in a small town of Bethlehem near Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth. The mother of Jesus, Mary, before she had been officially taken by Joseph, was betrothed to him as his wife. No socially approved marriage ceremony took place due to Mary's sudden conception of a baby in her womb. Her husband, Joseph had taken her as she was a pregnant. Then, she gave birth to a son who has come to be known as Jesus. Mary and Joseph had another four sons and more than two daughters. As the eldest son in the family, Jesus started to help his father. In the process of helping, he mastered his father's occupation, carpentry,and became a famous carpenter in the Nazareth area. After the death of his father, Jesus became the sole family provider in order to support his younger brothers, sisters and his mother. Since there were many Jesuses in those days, he was identified by the phrase " Jesus the Nazareth". The Belief of Being Born Virgin Both Christian and Muslims believe that Jesus (Isa) was born of virgin Mary (Mariyam). Such type of belief is neither the monopoly of the Christians nor the Muslims. It is also the belief of the Budhists who say that Budha was born of virgin.A small tribe, in the southern part of the Ethiopian Empire, known to the writer of this note, believe that the founder of the tribe was born of a virgin girl. Just like the Christians' belief of the 'Holy Spirit' being the father of Jesus, they also believe the father of their people being the 'Holy Ray of the Sun'. According to the their belief, a brilliant son was born, who has become their biological and spiritual father. This is the belief of the tribe; taken to be true, unquestionable, unchallengeable and absolute. However, the secret behind the myth that created, 'being born of virgin' is strictly limited to leading members of the tribe.They have kept the secret away from detective mechanisms and passed it to the nextconfidential generations and preserved to these days. Therefore, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth cannot be a different story from the secrets of other people's beliefs of 'being born virgin'. Jesus could be a different person among from his Jewish brothers and sisters by the unique character, unique humility, unique submissiveness,unique sympathy and generosity, trickery, magic and witchery works he was displaying to his people in his life time. As a living human being, however, he was born to a biological father, who could be Joseph or Mary's garrayyu .If the young Mary hadn't conceived for Joseph,he wouldn't have taken her to his house in that very conservative Jewish society. The other puzzling question is, if he had been the only beloved Son of God, why that God couldn't save him from execution? His death on a tranversed cross of wood testified that he was a mortal human being not the immortal God. Preconditions for Jesus's Christhood The word Christ has no original meaning in the mother tongue of Jesus. It is from the Greek root of khristos, meaning messiah in his mother tongue. It corresponds to the English, prophet or anointment.As common to other Jewish boys, Jesus was taught how to memorise by heart important parts of Jewish laws and verses. By the time he was 12 years old, his parent took him with them to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover. In Jerusalem he saw what he hadn't seen in his town. He saw the Roman's domination of Jerusalem blocking the gates of the city. He saw the benighted remarks and un-ethical behaviours of the Sadducees. He heard the loudly talking and preaching of the Pharisees. Now,the young Jesus began to think what type of decision he should take to correct the 'incorrect' acts of his own people in his life time. The young son of Joseph and Mary, then, took a spiritual and political decision upon himself to help discover the lost path of God of Israel to hispeople. When the Passover fastval was over, Joseph and Mary began a long journey to Nazareth with caravan traders. After many hours' journey,they came to know that their young son was not with them. They returned to Jerusalem to find him. They found him in the temple listening to preachers and lecturers. When they asked him why he had done to them so sad, he answered," Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"( Luke 2 49). This is the beginning of juvenile deliquency in the name of God. When he was 30 years old he went to the River Jordan and asked John the baptist to baptise him. John submerged him in the water. Then, " a voice came from heaven saying, this is My beloved Son,in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew, 3:13-17) This divining voice could be a reminder of what he felt as a child when he was in the temple of Jerusalem.Hereafter, Jesus set off into wilderness to live alone in confinement, where he stayed 40 days and 40 nights before he returned to Nazareth. After he returned to the Nazareth area, he began preaching on repentance, baptisation, humility etc. In the mean time, the arrest of John the Baptist by the Romans gave him a good chance to take over his job. Jesus as a Christ of the Non-Jews Jesus's Christhood was rejected by his Jewish people, over whom he was divinely appointed as a Messiah.The Pharisees spied against him. When he clearly understood that the Jewish people rejected him, he turned his ministry to the non-Jewish people, the Gentiles. He began to sit and eat with them. He entered their tabooed houses by ignoring the established Jewish social and religious taboos including dietary, impurity and purity laws. He began to preach how Gentiles would enter the heaven before the Jewish could do.This radical preachings, now brought him in direct violent confrontation with the pharisees. Division occurred among his 12 disciples. One of the disciples, Judas, was beribed and facilitated his arrest by the Romans.
The Pharisees accused him of inciting Jewish against the Jewish in order for chaos to prevail in the Roman dominated Israel.Then, Jesus was arrested and produced infront of the Roman Judge and governor of Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate. Peaceful surrender to the enemy for death started by this paricular man and at this particular place. Though Pilate refused Jesus's death by hanging since he found no cases against him, the Pharisees insisted on his crucifixion. Finally, Pilate left the matter in to the Jewish, They hanged him between two thieves at the hill of Calvary in Jerusalem. The death of Jesus was neither a legal decision nor a religious sacrifice. He was politically charged, and that political decision was applied on him. Legally, he was not found guilty. No direct spiritual or religious issues were raised against him as a criminal man. The question is, why God of Israel went in favour of those who crucified him? Why he was accepted by non-Jewish peoples,the Greeko-Roman world of Europe with the tiltle of "Christ" which became a title by which Jesus has been addressed and worshiped as a Lord of the White Europeans,and through them by Black Africans as well? The Holy Book of the Lord There were conditions for the compilation of Jesus's main preachings as a "Holy Book of the Lord" for the Gentile peoples to worship. One of the conditions was, the rapid spread of Christianity in the Greeco-Roman world, the non-Jewish world.Secondly, there was a fear that one day Christianity would be suppressed by the Roman authorities who still preserved their own natural faiths. Thirdly, Christianity came in direct contact and conflict with different cultures and traditional beliefs. Fourthly, there was a great concern that the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ was not as near as they believed to happen soon. Hence, the need to preserve the Gospel (Good News), his preachings, his personalities, his commitments etc.in written form was necessitated. It was written by different people like Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter and others. The written book of the Gospel finally appeared under the title of The New Testament as a continuation of the Old Testament. The Old and the New Testaments together form "The Bible". It is so called "Bible", because it was written on pieces of the inner part of the papyrus plant which ancient Phonicians were very famous to make a crude form of paper out it, which later on, the Greeks called this paper bibilia. The Bible, as a Holy Scripture of the followers of Jesus Christ, is, therefore, a Book of Divinity and worship. It has been translated into different languages, edited and re-edited several times in the way it can sarve the ideology of the users. Part Two Islam:- The Younger Masaanuu Brother of Christianity "There is no god but Allah "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" Islam is the younger masaanuu brother of Christianty. Judaism is the father of the two religions. Abraham is the father of judaism and the great-great grandfather of the prophets who were causes for the invention of Christianity and Islam. The word Islam corresponds to the Arabic word submission or obedience while a person who submits himself to Islamic faith is called Muslim. Islam owes its invention and expansion to one remarkable Arabian man called Muhammad.By virtue of its origin, unlike other religion of the world, Budhism, Hinduism, Waaqeffanna, Shintoism and even some sects of Christianity, Islam can not be a religion of an individual person which could set believers free to lead their private life, conscience and follow their own ethical standards. " It is a complete way of life governing dress, economics, buisness ethics, rate of taxation, justice and punishment, weight and measures, politics, war and peace, marriage and inheritance, family and domestic life, the care of animals and livestock, sexual relations----diet, forms of greeting and rules of hospitality." If we see this, why can't we say, Islam is nothing but simply the spiritual side of communism. It holds an uncompromising view that Allah had brought the universe into being bu here contrary to the communists who hold that, dialectical materialism is the sole force for the creation of the universe. If Allah wills, holds Islam, can destroy the universe right now. Muslims strongly believe in the coming of the end of the universe and how that end day will be followed by a Day of Judgement, a common psychological terror it shares with Judaism and Christianity.It is also the day of resurrection.On this day those who have deliberately chosen to be qafir, as defiants to the laws of Allah, shall be sent to eternal damnation. The obedient pious Muslims shall be sent to paradise for eternal rejoice and exultation. Therefore, Muslims preach Islam as the only salvation from eternal torture and agony. MUHAMMAD:- From Caravan Company to Islamic Infantry. Muhammad was born in Mecca, located in the Arabian desert, probably in the year 570 A.D. He was a son of merchant father, Abdullah and mother Amina. Muhammad's tribe, the Banu Kinana, is believed to be the best chosen tribe of Allah. Thus,Muhammad was born being the best chosen man of Allah in the best chosen tribe of the Arabs. His parents claim direct ancestory from Ismael and Ibrahim. Muhammad's father and mother died one after another, and the orphan boy was taken by his uncle for adoption. He grew up as camel driver for his uncle in Arabia desert. At the age of 25 Muhammad was asked by a 40 year old wealthy lady, Khadija, to marry him. He accepted her offer and happily married to her. They had begotten one surviving daughter named Fatuma who became a fanatic Muslim like her father. Though Muslims say that all nations had had their own prophets, their prophecies are imperfect and incomplete. Muhammad is believed to be the only perfect, the greatest and the last seal of all prophets sent by Allah to complete hitherto imperfect prophecies. Hence,rejection of Muhammad's prophecy shall incur unforgivable sin upon the infidels whose penalty is eternal damnations in the chamber of endless torture. Preconditions for Muhammad's prophethood It could be an unwise to deny the existence of monotheism in Arabia prior to the birth of Muhammad.If ancient Arabians had not known the existence of one Supreme Being,they wouldn't have developed ALLAH in their vocacularies to represent One supernatural force. They were worshipping and praying invoking the name Allah being under the Great Black stone,Kaaba though there are other stones used in different parts of Arabia to symbolise the invisible creator Allah. Since the desert climatic condition of Arabia cannot breed mangrove forest tree like the ones in the paradise land of Abbaa Muudaa Oromoo, Arabian people's choice of erected stones as a means to reach their Allah was not wrong. However, Muhammad being influenced by Jewish and Christian merchants, miscalculated his own people's natural religion and their belief in Allah through naturally available means as "idolators". In those days, Jewish and Christian merchants were coming to Arabia with the Jewish and Christian versions of monotheism. Muhammad was immensely swallowed by the merchants' new religion. In addition, they were telling stories of their great religious leaders. Perhaps, Muhammad could have developed a serious ambition of becoming a great leader after he learned the concept of One God from them that he started to compare his people's religion with the Jewish and Christian merchants. Just like Jesus Christ, Muhammad also decided to live alone in a cave on Mt.Hira. It was at this place that Allah revealed to him via the angel Jibril to preach the true religion originally revealed to Ibrahim in the ancient time. He Returned to Mecca and started to preach the idea of "no god but Allah." He was rejected and vehemently opposed by Quraish leaders. When he was not able to convince them he devised new tactics. To make an alliance with chieftains who would come to Mecca on pilgrimages was one of the tactics. He met six men in 620 A.D in Mecca who came from Medina. He preached them the concept of One Allah.The idea of one One God was not new to Medina people since they learned from the numerous jewish and Christain merchants living there.They agreed to spread his idea however. Then,contact between Muhammad and the Medina chietains secretly went on.The second tactic was to integrate himself into poor and weak Arabs who could be easily attracted by hisconsideration and generosity. In spite of the best tactics,Muhammad could not win the Mecca Quraish leaders. Then, he had to escape from Mecca to Medina accompanied by a man called Abu Beker. It is this scape, from Mecca to Medina, that has come to be known as Hejira. It marked the beginning of Muslim calendar. The Seed of 'Holy War' In Medina Muhammad had become very strong. He got many followers. Two years after hejira, Muhammad organised a squad of eight men under the leadership of Abdallah Ibn Jahsh and sent them to attack a Quraish caravan who were passing by Medina. They attacked the men, killed one man and captured another. This was the first bloodshed in the name of in the name of Allah for expanding Islam. (H.136) It usherd the root of Jihad war, which has been translated as a 'Holy War' by European sholars. After the first mission was , under Abdallah, was successfully completed, Muhammad decided to attack another Mecca caravan returnig from Syria, now led by Abu Sufian. However, the Quraish intelligence service had learned Muhammad's plan and the leaders decided to confront him. The two armies fought each other in year two of hejira on the 18th of Ramadan at Wadi Bedr. Muhammad won the war and his enemies fled in desperate and terror. This war was an "---abolute proof that Allah was on his( Muhammad) side, and it made him decide that the rest of the Arab world must be forced to obey Allah's words and commandments. This decision began an era in which the sword was the chief missionary instrument of Islam." How can war be praised as holy? If war is taken to be holy, regardless of its form as defenive or offensive, the human blood it has been sheding could have turned the desert barren lands of the birth places of Judaism, Christianity and Islam into prolific fertile holy lands. The rocky mountainous areas of central Asia could have been turned to hospitable plain lands. If it were holy, murderous Abyssinian dictators, emperors and their right hand orthodox clegymen woould be a meek dove. From true believers point of view, be it defensive or offensive, war is unholy. To defend one's own fatherland from agressive regimes should not be confused with the fanatists question of holy war. It is purely patriotism which can be escalated to an offensive just war. It requires art and science,in sharp contradiction to the "holy war" of the fanatists guided by dogmatic-religious beliefs. The 'Holy Muslims' Islam illustrates obedience to the will of Allah while those who accept the Islamic faith are called Muslims. Most people in Arabia, in Asia and north Africa in particular had been the direct product of the 'Holy war' of islamic sword conducted by Muhammad's successors,and later on by Ottoman Turkish Sultanets. Muhammad was the first person who declared himself as a Muslim. Thereafter, anybody who wants to be a Muslim must heartedly say the following recitation in the presence of two persons as witnesses. ' There is no god but Allah' ' Muhammad is the messenger of Allah' By saying these simple citation a person is entitled to be a member of world Muslim brotherhood. Thereafter, he has to follow the strict rules of Islamic laws and Quran as a source of the constitution of all laws. He has to observe dietary laws, marriage rules, form of greeting, five times pray a day facing to the direction of Mecca. He has to avoid untouchable relics of pre-Islamic ritual objects if he want to be a holy Muslim and wants to live in paradise after death. Since conversion to Islam is simpler than the beaurocratic-colonial Christian faith, most people particulary in the continent of high illiteracy rates of Africa, are running to Islam as if it is superior to their colonial or traditional religions without having understood the enigma behind the recitation they are obliged to loudly pronounce. The Holy Book of Allah Muhammad is said to have received a total of 114 revelations when he was in isolation on Mount Hira and in Mecca, as revealed to him directly from Allah via the angel Jibril. This Holy Book is called Quran.After the death of Muhammad, his revelations were assembled together by his special secretary called Zayd who was closely supervised by a committee assigned for this purpose. The compiled revelations, after their accuracies had been proved by Muhammad's closest friends, were released as the Holy Book of Allah for the Holy Muslims. For the Muslims, every word in the Quran is a divinely written obligation that must be accepted as Allah's order. To raise any logical explanation for or against the verses is a sin, which automatically turns the holiness of the believers to the unholy qafir world of damnation. With the completion of Quran, Islam has become the third important written religion of Ibrahim's (Abraham) children after the jewish Talmud and Torah and the Christian Bible. Quran also serves the Islamic states as a source of constitution. To sum up, there are Oromos, knowingly and deliberately, who evaluate Oromo natural religion,Waaqeffanna, negastively by using Judaism, Christianity and Islam as yardsticks for their measurements. However, the better we leanrn the origins and purposes of these religions, the better we understand and respect each other and the best we can measure.
Tufaa

How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion of Somalia

How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion
Xan Rice in Nairobi and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

(The Guardian - Saturday January 13, 2007) On December 4, General JohnAbizaid, the commander of US forces from the Middle East throughAfghanistan, arrived in Addis Ababa to meet the Ethiopian prime minister,Meles Zenawi. Officially, the trip was a courtesy call to an ally. Threeweeks later, however, Ethiopian forces crossed into Somalia in a war on itsIslamist rulers, and this week the US launched air strikes against suspectedal-Qaida operatives believed to be hiding among the fleeing Islamistfighters. "The meeting was just the final handshake," said a formerintelligence officer familiar with the region.Washington and Addis Ababa may deny it, but the air strikes this weekexposed close intelligence and military cooperation between Ethiopia andAmerica, fuelled by mutual concern about the rise of Islamists in the chaosof Somalia.Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that US military personnel enteredsouthern Somalia this week to verify who was killed in Monday's air strike.It was the first known instance of US boots on the ground in Somalia sincethe Black Hawk Down catastrophe, when 18 US soldiers were killed by Somalimilitiamen, the paper claimed. But Pentagon officials and intelligenceanalysts say a small number of US special forces were on the ground beforeEthiopia's intervention in an operation planned since last summer, soonafter the Islamic Courts Union took control of Mogadishu. Press reports havesaid US special forces also accompanied the Ethiopian troops crossing intoSomalia.The main cause of delay was the weather. Mark Schroeder, Africa analyst atthe intelligence consulting firm Stratfor, said the critical turning pointwas the end of the rain season. "While Ethiopia could move small numbers oftroops and trucks as a limited intervention into Somalia, they needed towait until the ground dried up." Once they did move in, the troops wereaccompanied by US special forces, analysts say. For America, therelationship with Ethiopia provides an extra pair of eyes in a region thatit fears could become an arena for al-Qaida. "The Ethiopians are the primarysuppliers of intelligence," said one analyst. However, he said, it wasalmost inconceivable that the US would not have sent its special forces intoSomalia ahead of the Ethiopian intervention. "You are going to want to haveyour own people on the ground." In return, the US is believed to haveprovided the Ethiopians with arms, fuel and other logistical support for amuch larger intervention than it has previously mounted in Somalia. It hasalso made available satellite information and intelligence from friendlySomali clans, a former intelligence officer said.America's renewed interest in the Horn of Africa dates to November 2002 whenthe US military established its joint taskforce in Djibouti, now the basefor 1,800 troops, including special operations forces. By then, the west hadgood reason to fear that Africa had become an arena for al-Qaida, and thatthe failed state of Somalia could become a haven for the organisation'soperatives. The bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998and the attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa gave cause for suchfears. So too did al-Qaida documents retrieved from Afghanistan that spokeof the organisation's ambitions in the region, says Bruce Hoffman, aterrorism expert at Georgetown University and the Council on GlobalTerrorism. "That this was a primary area of concern," he says. In fact, saysanother analyst, the US was closely considering a strike on suspectedal-Qaida cells in Somalia as early as 2002. That idea was abandoned. ButAmerica's concerns came to a head last year with the rise of the IslamicCourts Union. At first, Washington's response was relatively modest. Itmounted a small CIA operation, run from Nairobi, to stand up Somalia's hatedwarlords against the Islamists, a former intelligence official familiar withthe region says.The under-the-radar approach was necessitated by the state department'sopposition to any type of military intervention in Somalia. Until the middleof last year, diplomats remained hopeful of negotiations between the Somaligovernment and the Islamic Courts Union. That position, promoted by thestate department's top official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, put diplomats ona collision course with the Pentagon. By last June, when the Islamistsseized Mogadishu, the Pentagon appeared to have won that bureaucraticstruggle. By then, the CIA operation was widely acknowledged as a disaster.Talks on peace and power-sharing between the Somali president AbdullahiYusuf's government and Islamic courts were foundering. A Somalia analyst inNairobi said the Islamists took most of the blame - unfairly, in his view,as the government had no intention of ever sharing power. "My guess is thata decision to wage war was taken sometime in October by Ethiopia andAmerica. That was when people close to Yusuf appeared dead convinced thatthe Seventh Cavalry was going to appear. We thought it was a pipedream. Itwasn't." As the build-up to war continued, with Ethiopia sending more troopsinto Somalia and the Islamists moving closer to the government base inBaidoa, experts say the cooperation between Addis and Washington increasedsharply.Help from the sea was also required. Landlocked Ethiopia has no navalcapacity, but the US could easily move warships from the Gulf to the Somalicoast - as happened once the conflict began. By mid-December Jendayi Frazer, the state department's top official forAfrica, was echoing the message from Addis Ababa about the dangers of theIslamic Courts Union. "The top layer of the courts are extremist to thecore," she said. "They are terrorists and they are in control." Days later, the Ethiopian forces were on the move. But many believe thatAmerica's support for Ethiopia's military intervention could come back tohaunt the US, and predict a flare-up of Somali nationalist feeling. Already,clan fighting is threatening to jeopardise attempts to restore stability.This week there have been at least three attacks on government forces. There is also concern that the precipitate flight of the ICU does notnecessarily signal its definitive defeat. Last night, the Ethiopian-backedSomali government forces said they had captured the last remainingstronghold at Ras Kamboni, just two miles from the Kenyan border. It may notbe the last confrontation between government forces and the Islamists. "The Islamists have not all gone away. Many we believe continue to be inMogadishu. They buried their weapons, and buried their uniforms, and theyare lying low and letting the dust settle," Mr Schroeder says (Source: The Guardian