The folly of trusting Zenawi in peace keeping role in Sudan By Robele Ababya
8 min readBirth of the 54th Nation in Africa
I was thrilled to watch on TV the birth of the new Republic of South Sudan, which has now become the 193rd Member State of the United Nations. A jubilant mammoth crowd of Sudanese took part to celebrate their hard won independence at the cost of two million lives not to mention the humiliation meted out to millions of victims of grave human rights violations in all its forms and colossal looting of precious resources of South Sudan.
Heads of State and government as well as dignitaries representing their governments spoke at the glamorous occasion withstanding the hot weather. Promises made for economic development in a peaceful environment was a common central theme of the speakers were well received by the tumultuous crowd of South Sudanese who were long denied human rights, freedom and dignity, not to mention looting of their God-given natural resources in abundance.
Thank God our South Sudanese brothers and sisters were finally and deservedly crowned with independence on 9 July 2011 after decades of struggle of paying a heavy price of 2 million lives and enduring gruesome indignities.
The first President of the new Republic of Sudan, His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit, made an excellent speech to the responsive enthusiastic audience. I was particularly impressed by his direct appeal to Ethiopia and Eritrea to solve their boarder dispute; and Somalia to solve its internal political problem. The President underlined the importance of regional cooperation in a stable and peaceful political environment. He is so right in his appeal in view of the fact that the leaders of the three countries are accountable for destabilizing the region of the Horn of Africa. It seems that His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit made His remarks with full awareness that Zenawi and Afeworqi are hired guns in the service of foreign powers – the former professing democracy in sheep’s clothing to appease donors and the latter supporting the Al Shabab linked to Al Qaeda.
Lacking qualified manpower and techno-scientific base, the leaders of the new Republic will have a Herculean task to face now and for the immediate future, and more so in view of rampant corruption and intra-tribal strife taking place even now. Zenawi is all too happy to exacerbate this situation for he is adept at fishing in troubled waters for his survival. It is therefore detrimental to trust Zenawi in peace keeping role in the disputed region of Abyei region in Southern Sudan. The western powers know it too, but keep immoral fund to flow directly into Zenawi’s coffers for their own strategic reasons; to them human right is invariably secondary to their national interest.
Groups vying for influence
The big vultures are hovering over the sky of South Sudan gazing on the rich mineral resources above and beneath the ground. These vultures, including representatives China, UK, USA, India, and the Arab League were there to witness and pay lip service to the independence of South Sudan, portraying themselves as partners in development.
Zenawi and Afeworqi vie for regional supremacy but are toothless in that they do not have the technological power and global influence to compete with the big vultures; but they have to be watched closely for the duo is likely to cause havoc as the one they did, and are still doing, in Somalia even at this time that the United Nations has proclaimed famine in five or so regions of Southern Somalia where the Somali people are suffering the worst humanitarian crisis wrought by drought and political instability exacerbated by the invasion of Zenawi forces. Add the carnage and starvation in the Ogaden perpetrated by the brutal TPLF regime.
The contribution of Uganda to the independence of South Sudan amounts to a lion’s portion of the combined total of Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania put together. Museveni is a genuine Pan Africanist with the added ambition to become President of the East African Federation; he is a key player in the AU and IGAD. Zenawi is a cunning divisive dictator that does not like rivals. Museveni as a seasoned political leader is quite competent to guard his back against the intrigues of Zenawi.
Regional peace and the role of Egypt
Egypt will be the epicenter of power of the emerging democratic Arab countries. The success of Egyptian revolution is hugely significant for the ushering in of democracy in Ethiopia first and foremost by removing the minority TPLF regime from power in order to set the stage for genuine dialogue among all stakeholders. Mubarak may have fallen from power but his cohorts deeply rooted in his regime still hold prominent positions in the Military Council and the Cabinet formed after his fall in disgrace. Secretary Clinton’s call on all democratic countries to rise up against dictators is dubious given that America’s relations with Saudi Arabia and dictators of the likes of Meles Zenawi are cordial. In fact, Meles is amassing large military contingent along the Ethiopia-Sudan border on the fabricated excuse that Sudan and Egypt are poised to interfere with the construction of a mega dam on the Blue Nile. But this flimsy excuse is for the purpose of reversing the Egyptian revolution, which the USA and UK want to control and the Wahhabi adherents in the Saudi kingdom want to reverse and destroy. Thus Zenawi is serving his own personal safety interest and those of cronies in the top echelon of his puppet regime in order to fend off the impending onslaught of popular uprising in Ethiopia that is bound to hold him accountable for his heinous crimes on record.
The security situation in countries bordering South Sudan is fluid at best to the delight of Zenawi and his top Tigrayan generals and senior officers holding 96% of top positions in his security forces. Given their track record, it stands to reason that Zenawi and his brutal corrupt officers see a golden opportunity to plunder the resources of the troubled region.
Zenawi of the phantom ‘Golden Race’
School children in the 8th to 9th grades find through Google in the internet that; there was a Cushitic Kingdom of Ethiopia (2000 – 500 BC) replaced by the Aksumite Kingdom in about 400 BC; the Tigray-Tigrinya people did not live as a specific group in the Kingdom of Aksum; their first mention didn’t come until relatively late; the first mention of the group dates from around the 8th to 10th centuries at the end of the Aksumite Kingdom vanquished by Queen Yodit (Gudit) around 960 AD.
Ethiopia is indisputably the origin of mankind; it is as well widely recognized truth by reputed scholars that the early civilization of our ancient country is indigenous at least comparable to that of Egypt. On both counts we Ethiopians should be immensely proud as owners of globally recognized ancient civilization and mosaic cultural values accumulated over thousands of years. The racist Zenawi claiming his origin from historically unknown ‘Golden race’ must not be trusted to play a peace keeping role in the Sudan.
We are all descendants of the Cushite Kingdom; we are all bound by blood and common history. We live in an ancient nation. No other country has suffered so much internal political turmoil and external aggression for so long and still counting.
Therefore, there is no real reason not to mount united opposition against TPLF and put an end to its occupation of our motherland, Ethiopia.
Summary/Conclusion
It is bizarre and ironic that tyrant Zenawi, the supreme perpetrator of tribal ideology, is entrusted with peace keeping mission in the Abeyei region of Sothern Sudan in spite of his heinous crimes on record including genocide, robbery of election twice and naked invasion of Somalia, which invasion has exacerbated the present human crisis of Biblical proportion unseen in the last 60 years. He is no less criminal than his twin compatriot in evil deeds Isaias Afeworqi of Eritrea who is exposed and disgraced as “The Bad Boy of the Horn, the man whose money pays for terror”. The danger that these two despotic criminals pause to Africa must be brought to the citizens of the continent.
The multiple and complex set of political, economic and social problems of Ethiopia can only be solved through inclusive participation of all her citizens in a free society – noting that Ethiopia is a unique ancient country where the ancestors of this generation have taken part in the affairs of the country in both difficult and good times. It is the future that matters; there is nothing that one can do about the past except learning from it to face the future.
A stable and democratic Ethiopia shall be the backbone of regional peace and strength of the African Union. We should not shun our bigger responsibility petrified in the closet of parochial views in which Meles Zenawi desperately wants us to stay for at least as long as he lives .
The enemies of Ethiopia in the reactionary Arab world are embroiled in political and or economical turmoil of their own making. Afeworqi is on the verge of sinking to the abyss; the same fate is awaiting his closest ally tyrant Zenawi. It is a shame if those of us opposed to the misrule of Zenawi of the past 20 years fail to seize the moment to dislodge his TPLF regime from power through coordinated civil strike.
George W. Bush reneged on his promise to ditch the association of the US government with dictators for the last 30 years. The ditching did not happen during his days in power. Sadly in fact his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went to Addis Ababa to announce the ditching of the HR Bill passed unanimously by the House of Representative.
The rhetoric in support of the Arab Spring does not seem to change the policy of the Obama administration towards Ethiopia. So we Ethiopians must count on God and ourselves to bring about our version of Ethiopian uprising sooner than later. And God helps those who help themselves
LONG LIVE ETHIOPIA!!!
Release all political prisoners in Ethiopia
robele_ababya
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