Fooling Eritreans and Ethiopian

 By Amanuel Biedemariam

The ethnic cleansing of Eritreans and Ethiopians- of-Eritrean origin was indication of the propensity to how low the apartheid regime of the TPLF can stoop to hold on to power. What they did then was try to create a non existent scar amongst the friendly peoples and, set a precedent that will ultimately come back to haunt them. Unfortunately, the TPLF cadres have embraced mischief, deceit, lies, hegemony, manipulations, ethnic cleansing, genocides, extrajudicial killings and creating mayhem as a mode of governance. They have demonstrated what true nature of governance based on the darkest inclinations of humanity looks like.

Lately, a group of these criminals has been roaming around as a political party in the US calling themselves Medrek. While Medrek is an Ethiopian matter, since they have made Eritrea a platform and a focal part of their campaign, there is no choice but to react. And it is also opportunity to give another perspective to the unsuspecting Ethiopian and expose, that they are criminals that need to face justice, not messiahs that will save Ethiopia from darkness.

Their campaign started in SeattleWashington and met stiff resistance from Ethiopians that rejected the personalities and their messages outright. They then went to WashingtonDC, Atlanta and other places to conduct similar seminars. This time however, they slightly altered the messages and tweaked the delivery to appease the resisting parties.

The core of the Medrek is comprised of Gebru Asrat TPLF and chairman of Medrek, Seye Abraham TPLF and former Defense Minister of Ethiopia and, hodgepodge collection of TPLF subsidiary groups with familiar names to fill-in the blanks and, to legitimize the so-called Medrek.

Regardless of what they call themselves today, they are TPLF-Weyane cadres that were and remain affiliated to the group of Tigrayans that have been looting Ethiopia while wreaking havoc in the region afflicting untold suffering in Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea for over 20years. They are the core of TPLF-EPRDF, party to a group that committed and continues to commit major humanitarian crimes.

They base their platforms on two-core subjects; anti Meles Zenawi rhetoric and, Eritrea.

Anti Meles Zenawi Rhetoric

Their main aim is to appear moderate by demonizing their former boss Meles Zenawi, by denouncing his tenure as characterized by Temsgen Zewde,

 “A leader of the most brutal and oppressive regime, characterized by massive human rights violations, arbitrary arrests of opposition members, suppression of free press, exorbitant cost of living and flagrant rigging of election results, as a ruler of the most oppressive system and one who strongly believed in ethnic division.”

Moreover, they are also trying to portray the current Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn as a puppet and a continuation of Meles Zenawi. And to that end, they are preaching how democratic, transparent, respectful of human rights, press freedoms and guardians of Ethiopia they will and can be when they assume power.

Eritrea, the Carrot

This subject reveals the true nature of the group and the conspiracies that they are weaving against the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea one more time. According to Mahebere Andinet, in the seminar in Atlanta Ghebru Asrat said that he,

“Denounced secessionism and strongly adhere to the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. He further expressed that all parties have agreed to revoke the Algiers accord that reached final and binding decision regarding delimitation of borders with Eritrea.”

Denounce ethnic division…? That must be a joke. After the TPLF assumed absolute power of Ethiopia in 1991, Ghebru Asrat was the President of Tigray for over a decade and a member of the politburo of TPLF/EPRDF when article 39 was drafted. The base of the minority apartheid TPLF regime of Ethiopia is Tigray. TPLF is the organization that drafted article 39, an article that states, “Every nation, nationality or people in Ethiopia shall have the unrestricted right to self determination up to secession.” This took place while Ghebru Asrat and Seye Abraha were key actors of the criminal entity.

Their campaigns have many goals. For those Ethiopians that believe in Andnet (Unity) and Ethiopia’s issues of access to sea, it is to dangle Eritrea as a carrot. In the process, they can distance from Meles’s previous comments about access to sea. This is also designed to create confusion and fissure within the Ethiopia’s Diaspora opposition parties. This effort is lead by Seye Abraham and Ghebru Asrat in North America.

Simultaneous Campaign Directed at Eritreans

While Seye and Ghebru campaign in North America, another core is focused on the Eritrean public in the Diaspora with a unique strategy of deception. This is led by Berekt Simon, Abay Tsehaye, Sebhat Nega etc…

In Awasa Ethiopia, Bereket Simon created, funded and organized a group called Smerr, another term for Unity.  The main objective of this group is to dissolve the independence of Eritrea. To that end, Bereket Simon recently has been making rounds in Smerr paltak group claiming that Eritrea is “Not viable as a nation.” He stated how Eritrean minorities and religious groups are dying to be free while ignoring his own regional and religious issues.

Sebhat Nega and Abay Tsehaye are also making similar propaganda campaigns. On a recent interview, when asked about access to the sea, Sebhat Nega stated that they are focused not only on access to sea but the complete re-annexation of Eritrea because the people of Eritrea are demanding it.

The reality however, TPLF is an organization that never dreamed to rule Ethiopia since the organizations main aim was Greater Tigray (Abbay Tigray) or the independence of Tigray until the power fell on their hands accidentally. Greater Tigray is a dream that they never relinquished.

Since they came to power in 1991, Tigray has had a disparate advantage of the rest of Ethiopia. Worse yet, the core of the TPLF manipulated the international community to exploit resources sent in the name of Ethiopia and diverted it to Tigray and, their private coffers. These diversions include defense, transportation and manufacturing and, according to various published reports,

“Tigray region was the single highest beneficiary of the massive aid and loan guarantees that was given to Ethiopia by international donors and partners. Schools, colleges, roads, airports, factories, and other infrastructure projects were carried out in the Tigray state while other regions were ignored and marginalized.”

Furthermore, the backbone of Ethiopia is being stripped. For example they have transferred The Air force of Ethiopia from Debre Zeit near Addis Ababa, to Asimba Tigray. One has to realize the economic impact of an air force base relocating from one region to another disadvantaging one region while giving advantage to another based on the spinoff economic advantage the base accords.

In addition, a new research conducted by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has indicated that the amount Ethiopia’s illicit capital flight amounted to nearly 25 billion USD. The Reporter also just released a detailed account of their corrupt practices.

The Core

The campaign for Greater Tigray by exploiting all political resources is underway. The aim of the defunct ethnic apartheid regime is to pin one community against another so they can perpetuate their hold to power. They promise Ethiopians access to sea while promising the fringe aspects of the Eritrean extremist groups opportunities to power. This is unspoken conspiracy by the Tigrayan minority that supports the idea of greater Tigray.

The reality however, in the name of development and growth, roads from Djibouti to Tigray is already established. And parallel to the roads railroad tracks are planned. On October 22, 2012, The Capital, a pro government website reported,

“The Ethiopian Government has requested an additional 300 million USD loan from India. On top of a previous loan of 300 million USD, promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The loan will finance the last leg of the Awash-Woldiya-Mekele railway project. The project will connect the Northern part of Ethiopia with the soon to be constructed Tadjourah port in Djibouti. Genet Zewdie, Ethiopian Ambassador to India, said that discussions are ongoing between the two governments on the possible modalities of the loan request. Thus far, contracts for the construction of two out of three sections of the large scale railway construction project have been awarded to Chinese and Turkish companies, with the former clinching the construction of the 268.2 Km Mekele-Woldiya/Hara Gebeya Railway project in June 2012. The China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) will build the line to Tadjourah at an estimated cost of about 1.6 billion USD.”

Here you have it. The establishment of the New Republic of Tigray at the expense of Ethiopia is underway. The railroad is a security blanket just in case if the sea outlet they are working to outmuscle Eritrea from fails to materialize as it did in 2000. It is also designed to facilitate the exploitation of the Potash of the Danakil region.

Pipe Dream

If one looks at the track record of this criminal entity, what becomes glaringly obvious is, in over 20 years, they have only sold Ethiopia and the region hegemony, political manipulations, violence and false economic development numbers. They have failed to bring peace, a key ingredient to any development program. A break down of their 20 years tenure chronicles war 1997-2000, false election in 2000, and perpetual conflict in Somalia, Ogaden and, The Hague decision process that consumed the then political climate. The Election massacre of 2005, in 2006, conflict in Somalia and since, there has been no hope or inclination for peace. That is because the minority clique cannot survive in a peaceful environment.

Therefore they have to sell conflicts, Ethiopia and Africa to the highest bidder and in the process, turned Ethiopia into a platform whereby Africa is bargained-out to Western and Asian interest unabated while, selling Ethiopian land and resources to the highest bidders.

This time however, fully aware that their hold to power after Meles Zenawi is slipping, and fully cognizant that this may be their only opportunity to realize the dream of Greater Tigray, have started a full fledged campaign to instigate yet another conflict cycle.

Conclusion

The people of Ethiopia and Eritrea will certainly share their borders, brotherly history, exchange their riches and, coexist in peace forever. They have no choice. To have any chance in sustainable development, the people of the region must come to realize that peace is the only way. To achieve peace, the TPLF must be scrapped by the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea. They are criminals that deserve justice for crimes that they have committed at every level throughout their history.

Their hands are soaked in blood during the war with Derg, war with Eritrea, in Somalia, Ogaden, Omo and everywhere. Nothing better can be expected. If they get their access to sea, will they do better for Ethiopia? History attests, NO. Hence, the people of Ethiopia, Eritrea and the region must stop regurgitating their propaganda and focus on cleaning the vermin once and for all.

Eritrea: Strategy for Defying the Sanction

By Mebrahtu Asfaha

 The health and well-being of a nation is derived from the efforts and personal dedication of each who stand as its individual citizen. The Eritrean spirit of perseverance  is manifested in its full glory, by its individual citizens, in recent years, when the country was invaded by the enemy, when the unjust sanction was imposed on the country, and when the cyclical effect of the nature such as drought has affects the country.

 

These manifestations of defiance are a testament to the Eritrean spirit of perseverance, and an explanation to the conceptual framework of Hade Libi Hade Hzbi. 

 

The linguistic significance of the Eritrean notion of Hade Libi Hade Hzbi has the connotation of population who has one heart. It is similar to the Latin term Unum Corpus formulated by Thomas Aquinas that has the connotation of one body, and this philosophical teaching presupposes that people of a given community should relate to each other as members of the same family.

 

There is perhaps no clearer testimony to the recent conceptual manifestation of Hade Libi Hade Hzbi in an Eritrean culture than the complete participation of Eritrean people, inside and outside the country, in world-wide peaceful demonstration, to challenge the unjust sanction imposed on their country.

 

Similarly, one can recall similar action taken to avert an enemy’s aggression. When Eritrea was invaded by Weyanne, people from all walks of life, notwithstanding their differences or their geographical proximity and distance to the land, contributed  immensely, and in great numbers, financially and otherwise to alleviate human suffering caused by the devastation of war.

 

Similarly, drought and abundance, traditionally, are two paradoxical opposite aspects of nature that affects the Eritrean farmer. It is with these two elements of nature that the Eritrean farmer has to struggle and wrestle, as it is, his harvest and livelihood. Through their cyclical effect, the elements of nature, sets the precise terms of the struggle, and in that sense it is nature, which ultimately determines whether it will be a year of bounty or famine. However, the Eritrean people never allow nature to set a limit to what human autonomy and human achievement could accomplish. The construction of Aligidir dam in Gash Barka, for instance, is a clear manifestation of combating the cyclical and natural drought by altering ones nature through sustainable environment in order to ensure food security, and implement the concept of self-sufficient.  Armed with a slogan of Hade Libi Hade Hzbi they take on the feature of a struggle to alter nature to their advantage with human action.

 

 

Thus it is from these facts and fragments of our culture that we seek to extract the constant principles of the human spirit and moral significance and to make maps that point the way toward our communal future.

 

Eritrea is a complex nation founded in human spirit and human relations forged on the battlegrounds of this century. Historians put our reality of human spirit and human relations in context, explaining Eritreaness to themselves based on this powerful slogan of Hade Libi Hade Hzbi  of remarkable depth and perception that sets high standard to modern interpretation of human relations.

 

In the past informative teachers and philosophers have attempted to construct the compelling concept of this slogan unto numerous civilizations, however only Eritrea has carried this quest into the new century.

 

We Eritreans are called to protect and safeguard the nation and the people. Traditionally, the concept of familial obligations i.e. looking after your children, parents (filial obligation), relatives, or after those who are endowed with less fortune occupies a prominent place in Eritrean culture. Those who have more are called to share with those who have less. This Eritrean concept of obligation keeps the community of people together who are otherwise relegated to different status.

 

For instance Augustine had asserted rightly that Caritas and utilitas proximi constitute fundamental human relations. Of course Caritas is a Christian precept of Charity regarded by Thomas Aquinas as the “highest virtue”. This concept is similar to the Quranic teaching of Alms found in the third pillar Zakat, in the Islamic faith.

 

Furthermore, utilita proximi could be translated as the interest of one’s neighbour or what we call in Tigrigna Bsay in its true camaraderie meaning as Halyot Bsaynet. However, only in Eritrea the word Halyot Bsaynet has quintessential meaning. In Tigrigna the word Halyot derived from Gsi or verb Haleye which connotes the utilitarian concept of loving concern of others, that is explicitly the same as Augustinian’s utilita proximi i.e. interest of one’s neighbour.

 

Those who have participated in the Eritrean armed struggle know by experience that Bsaynet demands self sacrifice. In Bsaynet the fundamental virtue is not the honour or power of this life, but the sacrifice that one endures to protect the welfare of the comrades. From the perspective of Bsaynet, therefore, a position of leadership stipulates something more than political responsibility which is paying with one’s life to protect the people under your leadership. Similarly, in private life Bsaynet calls to show a loving concern as well as to protect, and safeguard the welfare of those who are under our care or those who have less or those who are less fortunate.

 

In Western tradition, this concept of human relations was proposed by Augustine based on charity. However, unlike the Eritrean concept of obligation that makes essentially no political or religion distinctions, the Western notion of charity initially was based on principles of Christianity. The Latin term unum corpus formulated by Thomas Aquinas has the connotation of one body, and the teaching of charity presupposes that people of a given community should relate to each other as members of the same family. Similarly, the corresponding Tigrigna saying Hade Libi Hade Hzbi has the connotation of population who has one heart.

 

Hade and Libi are the Tigrigna nouns of one Ahaz (number) and Libi (heart) respectively. In Tigrigna one can observe the equivocal and singular nature of these nouns. But in contrast to this, the Tigrigna language, when referring to population where many cohabit, uses the noun Hzbi (population) to denote exactly the multitude of people. Even in Tekie Tesfay’s Tigrigna dictionary the noun Hzbi (population) is defined in its plural connotation.

 

Therefore, these terminologies represent something new in the history of the usage where Hade Libi (one heart) methodically describes the flow of blood that is life from one source – heart. Furthermore, the linguistic usage of Hade Hzbi (one population) faithfully preserves the equivocal meaning of multitude of people at the receiving end of the life sustaining element from one source that is one heart (hade Libi). A conceptual analysis of the compendium usage of Hade Libi Hade Hzbi, therefore, suggests a terminology to describe strong bond between people wherever they are and how different they are, and it corresponds to general human experience of love.

 

In conclusion words such as Libi (heart), Hzbi (population), Halyot (loving concern), Bsaynet (camaraderie), Halafnet (responsibility), evoke memory of responsibilities and sense of obligations towards our fellow human beings. They bring to our memory inevitable and inscrutable connection to our homeland that transcends human understanding. The aforementioned words are what we have in common with our people both at home and abroad. It is because of such explanations that the Eritrean notion of Hade Libi Hade Hizbi has no difficulty to manifest itself whenever the need arises, whether it is to fight famine, to challenge the unjust sanction, or to defend the nation.

The second scramble for Africa
 
Timothy Kalyegira
"The American company, NGEx Resources, announced in March that it had made
“an exciting new copper/zinc discovery” in the Aradaib area of northwestern
Eritrea, adding that this “gold content, high zinc and copper grade…could
represent a very significant new gold-rich massive sulphide discovery in a
new and unexplored area.”
As a continent, Africa remains at the margins of the world’s economy as it
has for the last 1,000 years and more. Television and photographic images of
Africa continue to be those of human misery, displacement, dirty
surroundings and backwardness.
It contributes only two percent of global trade, has only two percent of the
world’s Internet users, and is the poorest and least developed continent.
There are more refugees and internally displaced people in Africa and more
AIDS patients and victims than in any other part of the world.
In that sense, it is an unimportant part of the world order.
However, there are certain features about Africa that make it extremely
valuable - as there were in 1884 when the Berlin conference was called to
discuss parceling up this world’s second largest continent into geopolitical
spheres of influence and economic zones- and which in recent and coming
years will turn Africa into a global political, economic, and military
battleground nearly on the scale that the Middle East is today.
As it was in 1884, this very state of underdevelopment is what 125 years
later makes Africa such an important asset to the various competing world
powers.
A second, equally intense and self-seeking “Scramble for Africa” between the
major western and emerging world powers is now underway and the result could
prove devastating to the continent.
It will scuttle the national development plans of many countries, as African
states attempt to respond to the pressure from foreign powers desperate to
gain access to these vital resources.
It will exacerbate local ethnic and territorial tensions and conflicts, many
of them going back centuries. It will lead to unheard-of levels of
corruption as heads of state and their close aides act out the role of
vassal chiefs of 200 years ago as those earlier chiefs directly negotiated
with incoming colonial adventurers, missionaries and traders.
For the African states that try to hold onto their strategic resources,
there will be a return to the externally-orchestrated military coups,
assassinations and mutinies of the 1960s and 1970s.
The greatest threat to an African leader’s or government’s hold on power
will cease to be from opposition political parties or national uprisings,
but from powerful foreign governments and multinational corporations seeking
to control these strategic resources in Africa.
This very real insecurity to African regimes and leaders will in turn lead
them to focus their main energies on holding off external sabotage or
entering into alliances with one power against another, all of which will
result in the wasted 30-year period that marked African history from about
1960 to the end of the Cold War in 1990.


The greatest new resource discoveries,
Africa continues to possess vast quantities of the traditional high-value
minerals such as gold, bauxite, uranium, diamonds, cobalt, and other
minerals critical to world economic production. These were the minerals of
the 1800s.
However, in the last 15 years, apart from the traditional nations of North
Africa, Nigeria, Gabon and Angola, great new sources of petroleum oil and
natural gas have also been discovered in Sudan, Chad, Uganda, Equatorial
Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, and most likely more will be discovered in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Since June 2006, the UK-based oil firm Tullow has discovered what it says
are an estimated two billion barrels (or drums) of oil in north-central-west
Uganda in the Albertine sedimentary basin of Bunyoro toward the border with
Congo. Tullow Oil is also exploring for petroleum in Ghana.
In March 2010, Tullow Oil signed an agreement with the Ethiopian oil and gas
company, South West Energy Ltd, to explore the gas and oil reserves that
have been discovered in the Ogaden basin in southeast Ethiopia, in the
Somali Regional State populated by the ethnic Somali Ethiopians.
In Dec. 2005, South East Energy was granted exploring rights in a 21,187 sq.
km. area in the Ogaden Basin, an area where rebels of the Ogaden National
Liberation Front are staking a claim.
Two American companies, Africa Oil and Range Resources, say they have
discovered an estimated ten billion barrels of oil in the war-torn Somalia.
In February 2010, the American company Anadarko Petroleum discovered a huge
reservoir of natural gas off the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique. Eni of
Italy, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the state-oil
company of China, and Petronas of Malaysia are all at various stages of
exploration in East Africa.
Reported the American newsmagazine Time (sister to CNN) on March 12, 2010:
“Seismic tests over the past 50 years have shown that countries up the coast
of East Africa have natural gas in abundance. Early data compiled by
industry consultants also suggest the presence of massive offshore oil
deposits. Those finds have spurred oil explorers to start dropping more
wells in East Africa, a region they say is an oil and gas bonanza just
waiting to be tapped, one of the last great frontiers in the hunt for
hydrocarbons.”
The world’s largest petroleum consumer, the United States, now imports more
than 11 percent of its oil from Africa.
The talk in the global oil industry is that there might be oil and natural
gas reserves in and offshore Africa that rival those in the Middle East.
The American company, NGEx Resources, announced in March that it had made
“an exciting new copper/zinc discovery” in the Aradaib area of northwestern
Eritrea, adding that this “gold content, high zinc and copper grade…could
represent a very significant new gold-rich massive sulphide discovery in a
new and unexplored area.”
Apart from its wealth of traditional minerals, the Democratic Republic of
Congo has about 80 percent of the world’s reserves of Columbite-Tantalite,
or Coltan, the tar-like mineral used in such high-value digital-era products
as mobile phones, digital cameras, laptop computers and video cameras.