ETHIOPIA IN THE HOOD: A SETBACK FOR DEMOCRACY

An Italian Oromo

Remember that Djibouti-Dire Dawa passenger train that was bombed back in September 26?  The Ethiopian government blamed the Oromo Liberation Front; the OLF vehemently denied it�So now the Ethio Gov is holding a suspect who �was filming the scene right after the incident occurred,� according to The Reporter.  The suspect is not an Oromo national.  He is�Italian.

This week, again in Dire Dawa, a bomb blast killed two people in a hotel room�

You are A Terrorist, He is A Terrorist�

In African government circles, anti-terrorism has replaced anti-communism as the quickest route to gain American sympathy and milk the American cash cow.  The revolutionary language of �freedom fighter�, �insurgent�, �rebel� is now a useless relic: �terrorism��targeting civilians into submission by random acts of cruelty�is not so much dependent on the act itself, but on who is committing it.  There is the government and there are terrorists.  That�s it.    There is the Ethiopian government.  There is the OLF and Al-Ittihad, terrorist institutions, according to the Ethiopian government.  And since Eritrea supports OLF and Al-Ittihad, Eritrea is a terrorist state: �most of the terrorist attacks and attempts committed against our people and country were executed by the OLF and Al-Itihad, surrogates and proxy agents of the rogue regime in Eritrea,� according to the Ethiopian Information Ministry.

Au contraire, says the Eritrean government.  See, we were the �first country to back the African Union convention to fight terrorism,� said the Eritrean government, a nation noted for its respect for conventions.  The Eritrean government has its own complaint against terrorists: an organization with alleged links to the Al Qaeda is part of the Eritrean Alliance, which is supported by Ethiopia.  Therefore the government of Ethiopia is terrorist.

And A Badme Here, And A Badme There�

The British Ambassador to Ethiopia obviously thinks that Africans behave like children and should be treated as children.  (You don�t have to fight over these toys; now, give that toy to your brother and I promise I will buy you a better one.  One with sounds and sirens and flashes.)  Just give this Badme, we will build you another Badme.   So now, one of the African children is acting like one: you can buy him a toy if you want to, but I want this one.  Dr. Solomon Enkuay, the Speaker of Tigray State, said, �let them build it for Eritrea, but not for us.�  Also, �they should not blackmail us with suspension of aid.  If it is a must, let the aid be suspended; poverty is something we have lived in and aid has not helped us to come out of it,� according to The Reporter.   Then Dr. Solomon Enkuay asked The Reporter for the microphone and started singing in his best Mick Jagger imitation, �I know, it is only poverty, but I like it, like it, yes I do!�  We made up the last part�

Ethiopians Present A Strong Argument Against Democracy�

If you think the Meles government is frustratingly belligerent, wait till you check out the Ethiopian opposition.   Specially those of you who believe that Ethiopia�s main problem is that power is monopolized by the �minority regime.�   Check out the Ethiopian opposition.  Better yet, let�s have the Reporter check them out for us�so here they are in their own words:

Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP):  ��colonial treaties which served as the basis of the boundary commission�s decision were in no way suited to the interests of Ethiopia�the Algiers Agreement�is basically cancerous to Ethiopia�s national interest.�

Oromo National Congress (ONC):   ��decisions taken by the Security Council or any other body for that matter are not unchangeable�We have seen countries like Israel defying the decision of the Security Council for more than fifty years just because the decisions did not serve their respective interests��

All Amhara People�s Organization (AAPO):  �Where peace was imposed without justice, the end result had always been war.  It had always been said that the genesis of the Second World War was in the peace imposed on Germany after the First World War.  Should the international community be committing this mistake in the horn of Africa today? We think not�Ethiopia�s great cause is the issue of her outlet to the sea�Ethiopia refuses to carry the burden of humiliation of a landlocked country.�

All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP):   ��to begin with, the manner in which Eritrea got independent was most inappropriate�We had at the time a military upper hand where we could have demanded for a settlement that would strongly safeguard the interests of the country, including setting a sea outlet.�

SUDAN AND THE HOOD: SPECIAL HONEYMOON EDITION

Once again this week, the Honeymoon in Khartoum is in full bloom�Let�s back up a little.  Sudan, though not a full-fledged member of the Axis of Evil, is still considered a member of the Axis of Not So Good by the US State Department.  Its name still appears in the list of �state sponsor of terrorism.� But, no matter�things change fast.  There has been so much progress��breakthrough� is the choice word--the UK is asking the UN Security Council to deploy peacekeepers (or monitoring team, according to government official) in Sudan.

For once, the �breakthrough� application is earned.  A problem that has existed since the 1950s may have finally found a durable solution.  Here�s what happened in Sudan just in the past week:

• Not only did Sudan admit it has political prisoners, it actually released them from jail.  The best-known political prisoner, Hassan al-Turabi, was released from jail on October 13, despite predictions from members of his own party (Popular Congress Party) that he wouldn�t be released until Sudan is demarcated, I mean, signs a peace treaty.  Bashir released al-Turabi just in time for the latter to hear Bashir�s speech which included ��we salute the USA for its position in the Sudanese peace process and its commitment to it��  He was overheard saying, "and now, you have served your time."  Ok, the last sentence we made up.
• Two opposition parties�the National Democratic Alliance and the Ummah party will join the government delegation in the upcoming peace talks with SPLA;
• Bashir promises to include the SPLM in the transition government;
• In Darfur, rebels handed over 42 prisoners as part of the peace treaty;
• A US Congress delegation scheduled to visit Sudan to get a perspective slightly different from the ones they�ve been getting from Pat Robertson (who called on nuking the State Department) and Reverend Falwell (who had a problem with one of the teletubbies);
• Fatimah Ibrahim, leader of the Sudanese Communist Party and the Women�s Union, returned to Sudan after 12 years of exile in the UK.

There is still the issue of Darfur, which, according to vice president Ali Osman Taha, is going to be �the biggest industrial town in Africa.�   There is still the issue of whether three provinces�Nuba, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei�are going to be included with the �South� in their vote for self-determination.  There is also the issue of Khartoum�whether as a Northern town, it will be an Islamist state or whether, as the capital city, will be a secular one.  And, of course, there is always the issue of OIL.
 

But they are all at least talking to one another�

And that's your update for the nations in the hood.