|
Meles Zenawi's policy of divide and Rule: Somali Region's territorial integrity is non negotiable
By Abdikarim H. Abdi Buh
May 11 , 2009
|
Introduction – An old wine in new bottles
Imperial Ethiopia, which was historically founded through coercion and subjugation of less fortunate nationalities by the predominately Christian highlanders, didn’t have peace with itself or with its neighbors. Owing to a long brutal history, when one hears the name of Ethiopia, the first thing that comes to mind is hunger, disease and civil war and sadly this picture refused to go away despite the numerous superficial changes to its political structure – feudalism, Socialism and finally Federalism. This persistent tendency of immunity to development and progress is a clear manifestation that the underlying policy is fundamentally the same oppressive and unresponsive one – the ruling nation at the time owns the rest of the nationalities of Ethiopia through the adoption of a vaguely paraphrased nonbinding dinosaur constitution.
The Meles Zenawi's (Woyanne) regime in Addis, unlike it’s predecessors, has no loyalty to any one including Tegray, let alone Ethiopia or, for that matter, conformity to universal human rights – they are fascists to the bone, who are out there to sow the seeds of discord among the brotherly nations and nationalities with the view that Ethiopia, as we know, to dissolve into quagmire with their demise which is certainly around the corner.
The young army officers, Socialist Dergu regime, made history by solving the land question but failed to address the nationality’s question and at the end of the day the struggle of nationality-based liberation forces (WSLF, OLF, EPLF and TPLF) routed them out of power. The Woyanne clique who came to power with the manifesto of addressing the nationality’s questions is fighting a loosing war, for two decades, against the same liberation forces who were in yester years fighting shoulder to shoulder along them and that is a clear proof that nothing of subsistence have changed in the Ethiopian political life.
It is high time for the Woyanne gang to realize that by consistently increasing the military budget at the expense of civil development, especially when more than half of Ethiopian population are food aid dependent, is idiotic of the highest standard and a crime against humanity which has no precedence in Africa‘s recent history. The Woyanne unta, which is suffering from early signs of dementia, desperately needs to remember that the unparalleled and unlimited military aid extended to Ethiopia by the East and the West alike failed to keep the revolutionary Dergu regime in power so by following their foot steps(the dysfunctional militarist approach) escorts to the same fate - disgraceful exit. To wit, the Dergu had a national army recruited from most of the nationalities and by then an officer was in charge of his subordinates in contrast to the current Tegrean bandits where the private Tegrean soldier commands, for instance, the Oromo general which is an insult to the military institution’s soul and spirit. In short, fighting with every one- Somalia, Eritrea and the home grown liberation forces- is obviously the yester years’ obsolete tools that failed to deliver the never changing goal of subjugating the Ethiopian nations & nationalities.
Demarcation of Nationality’s Boundaries – Eritrean and Ethiopian one should come first
The only burning issue in relation to demarcation of boundaries in Ethiopia is the internationally approved and bilaterally co-signed one, between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which the Woyanne regime is persistently refusing to abide by. This unresolved boundary dispute is costing both countries millions of dollars in arms procurements and funding unsustainable standing armies whose rank and file are recruited from the peasant class. Meanwhile, arable land, which could have provided decent sustenance to the multitude of this impoverished country is wasted in favor of obvious chronic under funding and destructive policies that invokes the old feudal adage of “every thing to the war.”
Due to Ethiopia’s intransigency to abide by international laws which she is a signatory to is literally perpetuating under development in the country’s periphery regions - regions inhabited by the concurred nationalities of the south and the east.
Eritrea, in light of the non- challant attitude of the international community toward said border dispute, has no choice but to forgo food and shelter for the preservation of its existence as a nation which came into being with the highest price tag in Africa.
The Woyanne regime appears to become a hostage to their secretive extreme leftist culture, of the old Albanian version, and is bent to forget that we live in a new era – thanks to IT- information is no more the monopoly of the elite and governments. As such, one is not surprised at all by the recent news that the federal government is spending monies on a campaign to demarcate the boundary between the Somalis and the Oromos. The Woyanne Junta’s foolishness knows no limits because the Somalis and the Oromos were living side by side in peace since time began and are intertwined through marriage, culture, religion and hence have no need to invite a detested foreigner to destabilize their cool home lands.
The Somali regional state was and is in a state of war with Tegrian occupation army for the best part of the past two decades and is proud to have liberated most of their region with the exception of the capital city. The Ethiopian government’s control is just confined to few pockets around Jigjiga and no respectable Somali is a member of the puppet regional government - illiterate youngsters and fresh school leavers who, after a well designed short indoctrination program, work as spies for the occupation forces are the only ones who are in their payroll. At the time of this writing, I can’t figure out the name of the current president of Somali Regional State, because the junta changes them much faster than the frequency we change our shirts, thus rendering the president’s office irrelevant to the Somalis who mater most.
With the advent of this demarcation exercise, which is ceding the bulk of Somali land including the hinterland of the capital city to the Oromia region, will certainly act as a catalyst to the resentment of the barbaric acts of the obstinate Woyanne’s state apparatus and will hopefully disentangle their grip on the last major city in the region. The hall marks of an oncoming violent reaction are all over the region as there are over 45 Geri elders (the major local clan in Jigjiga who are undisputed traditional vanguards of the region) are languishing behind prison bars for the best part of the last two year. Their only crime was petitioning against corrupt local puppet regional state officers who act as a rubber stamp to the dictates of their masters – the woyanne bandits.
The Somali people has yet to come to terms with the loss of their natural capital, Diridhawa, which was stolen in a similar conspiracy under the name of chartered city which resulted that Tigrean man ends up as a mayor of the city – they have no sense of shame. The creeping land stealing policy meted against the Somalis is now knocking the gates of Jigjiga. It is unacceptable to all that the Oromia region is extended to Jinasani which is only 18 miles to the north of the capital, or the official Oromia border to be at Harbiciid, which lies only 15 mile west of Togwajaale. Who ever thought that all the traditionally Somali territory between Hawas and Togwajale would be signed to Oromo! The real question is can the Oromos or for that matter the Woyane sustain this or this is nothing more than a piece of meat laced with poison forced through the throat of the Oramia people as this complacency with the Woyanne “gift” will in the short term create massive IDPS and in the long term become a sore on the relationship between the Somali and Oromo people for ere is no such thing as free lunch.
And, what to make of the elite of the Oroma people in this entire quagmire? To start, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and and the Woyanne surrogate ban of Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO), who are respectively the military and political wing of the same organization, must think twice before they fall for the bait of the enemy of the people.
The political mistake you commit today will shape the future of Oromia relations with their sister Somali region and even beyond. For the convenience of any body who is interested to find out the reality on the ground and the determination of the Somali people who are pushed to the corner must take time to go through the relevant literature which I made available in the following at the references – be your own judge and please do send your feed back to the author.
The Somali and to some extend the Oromia region were and are a theatre of war for the past forty years between the freedom fighters (WSLF,ONLF,OLF) on one side and the occupation forces on the other side. Somali region never accepted the membership of Ethiopia as it stands but were fighting for their undeniable right to self determination and as a consequence this made the region to be known among human right organizations, as the most isolated place on earth. The Red Cross and other international NGO’s are barred from the Somali region less they expose the endless human rights violation perpetuated by the so called government forces. The Ethiopian authorities dismiss all allegations of human rights abuses by labeling the reporters as liars or in the case of NGO’s threatening to terminate their contracts but I am wondering how they can refute satellite digital images showing burned out villages and towns.
Somalis have no representation in the Ethiopian government and is completely de-linked economically and socially from Ethiopia so how on earth the Woyanne gang could draw lines of discourse and hate on a land whose people don’t consider themselves as subjects or citizens of the state which trampled on their basic human rights.
This state of detachment from the realty is the universal practice of the junta; the recent tragedy of the Chinese petroleum workers who were caught in the cross fire between the freedom fighters and the occupation forces at Calub Gas fields in the Somali regional state confirms how unsighted the Woyanne junta are – to parachute foreign miners in the midst of 271,970.91 square K.M of hostile territory - is foolhardy and no one but the Junta is to bear the blame. In retaliation they killed around 2,500 civilians mainly children and women and razed to the ground 75 villages, demolished 35 wells, suspected to have poisoned three of the most popular wells which resulted the mysterious death of 7,000 camel, 23,000 sheep, 250 civilians and all that went unreported, as was and is the case of human rights violations of the region, for the past fifty years irrespective who is at the helm.
Through out the history of Ethiopia, the fallout from the trouble that starts from the east (Ahmed Gurey, Haile Sellase, Mengistu and the TPLF who were financed and armed by the Somali Government) always brings down the incumbent regime. I have no doubt in my mind that the stage is set for the last days of the brutal Woyanne junta as they can’t militarily and economically afford to sustain to fight the multitude of fronts opened up by their poor policies – a minority with no constituents who yearn to hang on to power by any means. Big chunk of the Tegrayan army is locked in vicious war in the largest regional state of Ethiopia for the past eighteen years, the same or even more are stationed at the Ethio/Eretrian boarder, OLF fighters begged down a sizable number in the Oromia region, some are engaged in terrorising the Amhara masses in their fight against the EPPF and the rest are keeping a close eye on the capital city based opposition parties.
The bush fire is literally closing into the Woyanne’s overstretched army from all corners with out escape route to Makkelle in sight when the hour arrives. The Somali territory can’t be resized by any occupation force and their allies no matter how hard they strife, the junta learned that in the hard way, but are doing this exercise to divert the attention of the Ethiopian people from the real expensive and overdue Ethio/Ereterian boarder demarcation on the one hand and to pull the rug under the feet of the Oromo which is perceived as a rising power which is ripe enough to be cut at the bud on the other hand. Eritrea left the federation in a constitutional way and has every right to demand that the borders should by marked according to the final decision of the international borders panel of adjudicators – I fail to see why the junta’s propaganda machine is making a legitimate issue in to a threat to Ethiopia’s existence when all support the Eritrean plea for justice.
Conclusion – The highlander’s covert agenda behind boarder demarcation is to kill the role of Oromo in the2010 election showdown and beyond.
We are witnessing history repeating it self at the highest echelon of power in Ethiopia at this very moment and you need not go further then scanning the internet sites bearing the name of Ethiopia – like the Ethiopian review and its likes. You will be surprised to find out that the highlanders are bounded together by centuries old culture of domination and sucking other nationalities blood because their likes and dislikes are nearly identical in every shape and form. The war of words under the guise of political parties is nothing more than a competition for the driving seat of the same Ethiopian vehicle which dehumanized the Somalis and Oromos alike.
What leads me to this desperation is the attitude of the highlanders towards the Somali and Oromo issues which they treat as foreign news which has no bearing or voice in the Ethiopian political arena. All the suffering the Oromos and the Somalis went through due to the highlander’s foul play, in this century, is not worth to appear in the literature of their letter writers and can hardly be mentionable in their chat rooms because they internalized the statuesque which relegated the rest to bounded slave status. They are united in confronting and frustrating the development of the sovereign nation of Eritrea which earned its independence after forty years of bitter war against the colonial forces and their allies. Knowing they can’t take back Eritrea by force, they are engineering to install a puppet government with the view to suck it back into the infamous union at a latter date.
This view is shared by the Woyanne and their counterparts – the opposition – as it is the hub of their historical value and political strategy, albeit little difference in procedure. They tried regime change in Somalia but was kicked out of the country bare footed and with their tales between their legs but the sad reality is the highlanders has to win one time to understand defeat – they never worn any war internal or external in their history.
The Woyanne’s tactic of indicating to turn right, for the people to see in the distance at the cross roads, when their real intention is to turn left is mastered by both Oromos and Somalis a like. This new and unnecessary project code named, the demarcation of the boundary between the sister regional states, is just another ploy and a political farce to pollute the trust and the cordial relationship the masses are enjoying and to take out off the equation, of the Ethiopian politics in the run up to 2010 elections, the mighty Oromo’s candidacy. Both nations are under colonial occupation and the junta is illegitimate colonizer, hence whatever they do on paper can’t be enforceable on the ground but will obviously dwarf the giant Oromo ambition to lead the country for years to come.
As the 2010 approaches the Woyanne will try every trick in the book to delay the election even if it means starting war at the Eritrean front or creating instability in Addis or other major population centers like civil war between the Oromos and the Somalis. The current accusations aired in Addis that Ginbot7 was planning to overthrow the government, who was in power for so long, is just a justification for the government to go on hunting fictitious enemies with in and around the capital to pave the way for unsettled environment to use as a platform to postpone or cancel the forth coming parliamentary elections. Their various military intelligence who currently carry out assassination of OLF,ONLF, WSLF members, Somali clergy and other Somali notables in Mogadishu, if need be, can be reassigned to execute covert sabotage operations in Addis under the name of Islamists or pirates from Somalia – there is no iota of credibility left in the heart of this dictatorial Woyanne regime.
The Oromo is the largest single nationality of Ethiopia and the Somalis own the largest region which also serves as the gateway to the rest of the world. The two nations are economically and socially interwoven and by strengthening the positive relations which was nurtured by centuries of intermarriage and good neighborhood can both nations achieve better economic, social and political life and in the end can free their bonded masses from the yolk of the merciless highlanders in general and the Woyanne in particular.
It is the only plausible political strategy that the Oromos and Somalis forge their own federations free from the highlanders because any political agenda or paradigm-Feudalism, Socialism and Federal – they table is turning in to ash because sincerity is alien to their frame of mind. The leaders and elite of both nations should understand that their choice is limited to one and only one, to unite; lest, the alternative is devil’s option and massive dislocation of their respective societies. But, united the Somali and Oromo nationalities can stand out of the crowd as an elephant stands out of the wild animals; divided, they can easily be crushed like a bug by the squirrel (Woyanne).
Abdikarim H. Abdi Buh
Email: Abdikarimbuh@yahoo.Com
WardheerNews contributor
------------------
Mr. Abdikarim HajI Abdi Buh was the Chief United Nation’s DP Representative in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.
------------------------
References/links
http://www.wardheernews.com/articles/March_05/press_release_Garaad.htm
http://www.wardheernews.com/articles/jan/edit7.htm
http://wardheernews.com/articles/Feb/dhulkii_khalil.htm
http://www.wardheernews.com/articles/jan/hassanjabhad1.htm
http://wardheernews.com/articles_07/September/26_Current_crisis_region5_Hagmann.html
http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_06/August_06/06_SRS_Tobias_Hagmann.html
http://www.wardheernews.com/articles/July/10_document_srse.htm
http://wardheer.startlogic.com/articles/Feb/dhulkii_khalil.htm http://wardheernews.com/articles_08/June/Roble/Zenawi_&_the_images_of_genocide.html
_______________________________________________________________________________
We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com So please email your article today Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of WardheerNews
Maqaalkani wuxuu ka turjumayaa aragtida Qoraaga loomana fasiran karo tan WardheerNews
Copyright © 2009 Wardheernews.com |
