***image2:left***I don�t like the man. On every occasion, I make sure that I express my disgust at his outlandish behavior. I have never liked Gaddafi. A friend said to me: �don�t get mad because Gaddafi met Isaias; politics is dirty!� He didn�t get it. My view has nothing to do with him meeting Isaias. In fact I would be surprised if he didn�t. The man has been close with every dictator I heard of. Gaddafi and Isaias are natural friends -- brothers in dictatorship if you will. There is something else that annoyed me however: The claim that politics is dirty! It is not. It is neutral. The players make it either clean or dirty. The wicked, the vengeful and the unprincipled promote the idea that politics is dirty so that their blunders and shame can be covered with the pretext that �politics is dirty�. That will offer them a free reign to play their dirty tricks under the guise of politics. Arrogant dictators like Isaias and Gaddafi make politics dirty. They don�t have principles and they play unprincipled politics.

It is all right for Gaddafi to visit Eritrea to see his buddy the dictator. The people, however, should not be made to act like circus clowns all lined up on the streets acting like children in a school break-time while dancing and clapping hysterically. It is a choreographed and fake display of jubilation. For example: why would the people of Massawa whose city was bombed by planes funded by Gaddafi�s petro-dollar a few years ago, be made to clown themselves under the scorching sun? Why do African dictators humiliate their people with such cheap gymnastics whenever their dictator-friends visit? I know this because as a child, I was forced to stand in the open for hours to receive Haile Sellasie whom I detested. I also happened to be in Asmara when the late Irani dictator visited: the whole city was closed and people were forced to the streets to clap for the entourage of Haile Sellasie, The Shah and his wife Farah Dibba. Gaddafi deserves a Thank you but no thank you for anything he gives to Eritrea. It is a down-payment for unclaimed reparations for the damage he wreaked on the country by openly financing Mengistu to crush the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces fighting against his dictatorial regime. Remember the carpet-bombing of Massawa and you know how much the megalomaniac Gaddafi owes us. The faint-hearted supporters of Isaias are exalted because they saw another dictator embracing their dictator. I believe he is exposed to the bone. The serpent has kissed him.

How To Win Dictators� friendship 
 

Dale Carnegie has a classic book titled �How to make friends and Influence People�. The above sub-title would certainly be Isaias� version of the book if he survives the wrath of the people to write it. 

Gaddafi is a mad person whose egocentric personality and clownish actions has been ridiculed by the whole world (that is with the exception of dictators like him) for three decades. His interference in the internal issues of many countries can be traced from the Moros of the Philippines, to Ireland and Nigeria. The man who ascended to power one 1969 morning driving a midnight-tank has been the main star in numerous ugly stories. Gaddafi�s kiss is similar to that of a serpent: lethal and risky. As far as dictators are concerned, they become close pals with Gaddafi only when their time gets closer to the big TICK. Proof? Let�s see some of Gaddafi�s adventures and interferences and the dictators he kissed: 

JAAFER ALNUMEIRI (SUDAN)

In 1969 Jaafar Al-Numeri came to power in a coup d� etat and two years later Hashim Al Atta, considered member of the Sudanese Communist party, overthrew him in a swift coup d�etat.  Numeri was arrested and hours later the would-be replacement Babeker AlNur was flying from London to Khartoum over Libya when Libyan fighter planes forced it to land on Libyan military camp. Babeker was handcuffed and handed to Numeri�s supporters. Three days later, Numeri regained power and killed the leaders of the coup d� etat:  Hashim Al Atta, Babeker AlNur, Abd al-Khaliq Mahjub, Josef Garang and Shafiqa Ahmed Al-Sheikh along with tens of others. Numeri continued to rule the Sudan for another 14 years during which time he introduced a flawed Sharia law and entrenched his one-party rule which was becoming more unpopular by the day. His programs of austerity brought about increase in prices, which resulted in public demonstrations and strikes. Following a popular uprising in 1985, General Abdulrahman Sewar Al-Dahab, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, overthrew Numeri in a bloodless coup while he was visiting the USA. He languished in Egypt for years until he returned to the Sudan on reconciliation initiative a few years ago. Gaddafi, a man who took power by force, always stood with those who took power by force. He backed Numeri who destroyed the Sudan which is still suffering from the aftermath of his policies to this date.  

IDI AMIN DADA (UGANDA)

In 1971, General Idi Amin overthrew Milton Obote in a coup d�etat and took power. He declared himself president for life and ruled Uganda ruthlessly from the seat of government that he renamed �the Command Post�. The following draws a picture of Idi Amin�s Uganda and it resembles Isaias� Eritrea:

�Idi Amin placed military tribunals above the system of civil law and appointed soldiers to top government posts. Yet, despite this outward display of a military chain of command, there were stark divisions within Amin's government and the army, which often resulted in lethal confrontations between rivals. The efficiency of the government was further diminished by the fact that Idi Amin was illiterate and conducted government affairs orally. The bureaucracy became paralyzed, as government administrators had no written orders to rely on and feared to take wrong decisions. However, Idi Amin managed to install a functioning regime of state terror, which he designed to secure his own position. General fear and insecurity became a way of life for the Ugandan population as thousands of people disappeared.�

During Idi Amin�s reign of terror, close to half a million Ugandans lost their lives. He fed Ugandans heavy does of xenophobic messages and empty rhetoric of Africanism. He directed his wrath against the Asian business community whose wealth and properties he wrongly confiscated and threw them out of the country mercilessly.

By 1978, in order to divert attention from his internal problems, Amin invaded Tanzanian territory. A year later, Tanzanian backed Ugandan rebels under the leadership of Milton Obote launched an attack on Idi Amin's forces. Gaddafi sent planeloads of paratroopers to reinforce Idi Amin�s forces; but Gaddafi�s 3000 man desert-troops could not last long in the equatorial forests. They were captured in their hundreds and Gaddafi paid heavy ransom to buy their freedom.

Milton Obote�s regime was ravaged with yet another guerrilla movement and civil war until the regime was overthrown in 1985. A year later the new regime was itself overthrown by the National Resistance Movement, which was led by Yoweri Museveni. Museveni, branded one of Africa�s renaissance leaders by the Clinton Administration, declared himself president in 1986. He established a �no party democracy� and won �elections� in 1996 and 2001. Moseveni is on his way of becoming an absolute dictator if he hasn�t become one already.

MENGISTU HAILEMARIAM (ETHIOPIA)

In 1974 the Ethiopian army hijacked a genuine revolution by the Ethiopian people against the regime of Haile Selassie. Soon, Mengistu emerged as a strongman among the military junta. He started his rule with liquidation of opponents and started spilling blood all over Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 1977, Mengistu, Ali Nasser of Yemen and Gaddafi forged a tripartite alliance against Eritrea. Gaddafi supplied the money while Southern Yemen supplied the anti-Eritrean war with pilots and experts. The wish of the three regimes was to crush the Ethiopian and Eritrean revolutions and save the Dergue. Gaddafi had supported the ELF-PLF for a brief period of time. Somewhere down the road, as mercurial as he is, he decided to be antagonistic to the Eritrean struggle. He likened Eritrean freedom fighters to bandits. When asked to justify his switch of allegiance, Gaddafi reasoned: Since there are more Moslems in Ethiopia than in Eritrea, it will be natural that the �Al Jamahyriah Al Arabiyah Al Libiya Al Ishtrakiya Al Uzma� would support the Ethiopians. The official name of Libya reflects the mentality of its leader: It is a republic, it is Arab, it is Libyan, it is socialist and it is Great.  

Gaddafi gave Mengistu some mileage and helped him stay in power until his forces were overrun by the joint EPRDF and EPLF forces in 1991. 

Hussien Habre & Gouckweni Owedi (CHAD)

In 1974 Libyan troops occupied the Aouzou strip of Northern Chad and claimed sovereignty. A year later, General Felix Malloum overthrew the first Chadian president, Tombalbay. Hussein Habre become prime minister. In the 1979 civil war, Felix Maloum went into exile and Gouckweni Owedi became President while Habre became Defense Minister. Another civil war sent Habre to exile and he started to fight from Sudan against Owedi. Habre won the round and Owedi fled to Libya where Gaddafi gave him Libyan troops but the combined troops of Habre and Jammous, another rebel, were successful in repelling the Libyan backed invasion. In 1989 Algeria brokered a peace deal between Libya and Chad (Just like the Eritrean Ethiopian peace deal). In the same year, Hussein Habre became a president and an absolute dictator. A year later, the rebel forces of his former prot�g�, Idris Debi, overthrew him. Habre fled to Senegal.

In 1994 the International Court of Justice ruled over the Aouzou Strip in favor of Chad. A few years ago, Hussein Habre was brought to court in Senegal, where he lived, when human rights groups led by Human Rights Watch filed a criminal complaint in a Senegalese court. He was accused of looting Chadian public funds, crimes against humanity, political killings, disappearances and arbitrary arrests and other charges. At almost the same time in London, the Chilean dictator Pinocheot was under house arrest.

Dimmi con chi vai ti dico chi sei (Tell me you friends, I will tell you who you are)

Gaddafi is a man who thinks he can buy Africans with his money after failing to buy the Arabs (and failed to convince them to adapt his philosophy, the Green Book, supposedly Gaddafi�s interpretation of the Quran).

Gaddafi�s kiss is a kiss of a serpent and anyone who is kissed by Gaddafi is doomed. He is a megalomaniac who thinks he can control governments � and he has a reason to think that way. People like Isaias turn to him to get an outlet and breathing space out of the isolation that they imposed on themselves and their people. Gaddafi uses his money to get some exposure and balance the isolation imposed on him by the world. Since his planes are banned by the UN embargo from flying, his entourage to any country flies the whole Libyan Airlines fleet with him. Suffice to mention that in his recent tour, his entourage flew to Eritrea in four airplanes!  

With Friends Like Gaddafi... 

What do Jaafer Alnumeiri, Idi Amin Dada, Mengistu Hailemariam and  Hussein Habre have in common?  They were all great friends of Moammer Gaddafi, Africa's Reigning Clown.  Now, we can add Isaias Afwerki to the Gaddafi fan club, an exclusive set of dictators who get Gaddafi's serpent kiss: an ejection from power.   Thus, Gaddafi's visit to Isaias is yet another harbinger of Isaias's imminent doom.  Thank you, Gaddafi.  "Dimi con chi vai ti dico chi sei."  Tell me your friends and I will tell you who you are. Like a living tomobstone, the harbinger reads, "Here goes Isaias, Friend of Gaddafi." 

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