EVER CONFIDENT AND DETERMINED MELES ZENAWI RESPONDS TO ALL: UIC, SHABIA, OLF, ONLF AND KINIJIT!

WASHERA_2000

The last address of the Ethiopian Prime Minister to the Ethiopian Parliament was more like a press release to the opposition, which came about in response to questions posed to him on several timely issues. I find it very fascinating and revealing. I think all concerned parties should pay serious attention to it.

In my limited vocabulary, I have tried to translate as much of what he said as possible. I have limited my comments to the absolute minimum. Please pay attention to the message, rather than the exact translation.

He starts off by giving a graphic description of the tragedies of famine:

More than war, we have seen famine's indiscriminate killings. We have witnessed emaciated bone-thin human beings fighting over recently dead animal bones, before they themselves followed in their path. Therefore, we have no second thought about the peace we must have to fight to end such human misery. To fight hunger and famine, our government has devised three strategic plans to be used both in times of war and peace:

1. If the enemy makes it impossible for us to continue our strategy to fight hunger and poverty, we will go to war with our enemy.

2. If we go to war, we will make sure to continue the war side by side with our development plan.

3. To minimize the dangers of a protracted war, we will make it short and decisive.

SOMALIA:

When UIC (Union of Islamic Courts) declared war on us, we did not decide to go to war right away. Our first question was to ask if this radical terrorist element was capable of blocking our development plan by itself. What we soon found out was that UIC was just the tip of the sword. The main culprit and instigator of this war game was the Eritrean government (Shabia). Shabia had lined up other Ethiopian armed opposition forces like OLF, ONLF and Al Ittihad and made them part of a destructive front. In addition, armed elements that are bent on overthrowing the government by unconstitutional means were made members of this front and planted inside the country.

The strategy behind the big plan laid down by Shabia was first to get Somalia under the control of the extremist UIC forces. Then, using armed Ethiopian forces as guides and escorts, to invade Ethiopia from the East and the South. The final phase was to be an invasion from the North by Eritrea itself, while agitating armed elements in each major city in Ethiopia to rise up simultaneously. This coordinated onslaught from the East, South, North and Center, was meant to lead to breakdown of constitutional order in the country. This was meant to make it easy for the invading Shabia to take control in Ethiopia.

Towards this end, it was imperative to have the UIC control of Mogadishu. When that was secured, they moved on to control the rest of Somalia except Baidoa, where the TFG (Transitional Federal government of Somalia) forces were cornered. It was at this point that the UIC declared jihad (holy war) against Ethiopia. Shabia had assured them that shootings will begin in all major cities in Ethiopia and that many forces will join them along the way on their victory march to Addis Ababa. They were promised that they will pray at the Aman Mosque in Addis Ababa within a week.

Such a well coordinated strategy to invade our country, however, could not be seen like a neighborhood fight. First we met both with the TFG and UIC and told them to solve their internal problems by themselves, peacefully. We told them that we are not only neighbors, but inter-related brothers and sisters. We offered our help just like we did in the Sudan. We told them to extricate themselves from the evil intentions of Shabia and concentrate on solving their own internal problems. We met with the UIC three times with the same message, but to no avail. Instead they were bent on invading us and came within 10km of Baidoa.

When it became clear to us that their sword was drawn and directed at us, we went to our 3^rd strategic plan. We brought the issue to this parliament and got approval. 90 or so of you opposed us and wanted to wait until we were invaded. When this strategic plan was executed, it took us one week to defeat the enemy.

After the main force was crushed, what remained was police security work. We expected this to be done by Somalia itself and hoped that the international community will do its share to help. That did not happen. The long simmering tribal problem in Somalia is taking longer to heal. Except the 1600 peace keepers from Uganda, the rest of the world failed to help in a timely fashion. We needed 8,000 peace keepers and when we did not get it, we were not about to pack up and leave. We stayed longer than we expected to do the police security work. But we did not sacrifice our on-going development plan. Those in this body who were telling us not to go in the first place started asking us why our military force was not coming back on the specified date. Whether our mission was accomplished or not was not their concern. They wanted the dead line to be met. Our response to them was clear. The agitators were hit, the main force was defeated. If we felt our presence would weaken the peace process inside Somalia, we were ready to pull our forces to our borders and sit. After all, it only takes us two to three days to reach Mogadishu. But that was not a viable option. The Somali forces have bled and died with us. We cannot betray them at such a critical moment.

We had to help them with their ongoing tribal issues. We had to help them build a peaceful force. We had to get the world community to get involved to forge a lasting peace in the region. To that end, we have tried to organized a peace conference. Other efforts have resulted in the negotiated settlement of the problem with the Prime Minister and the President. Some opposition forces are also coming back to the negotiation table.

We have brought in and trained some 600 to 700 Somalia soldiers and sent them back as part of our plan to strengthen the Somali Defense Forces. More will be trained. Other countries like Burundi are sending in peace keepers. It has been a slow process, but we are not going backwards. Our main task remains to be that of building the police force. Through it all, our development plan at home has not been affected. We cannot give them another chance to regroup.

Mr. Prime Minister: The only explanation missing in this detailed chronicle of events is the role of the United States government. How much were they involved in training Ethiopian soldiers? How much direct involvement did they have on the invasion? How much Al-Qaeda forces were imported into Somalia?

ERITREA: ARE WE GOING TO WAR?

We follow the same principles that were outlined above:

1. Work toward a lasting peaceful solution.

We have made different efforts in this direction. When it became clear to us that the Border Commission's decision was going to result in long and protracted disputes between the peoples of the two countries living in the area, we appealed to the Commission to reconsider. The Border Commission accepted that there were "anomalies and impracticalities" in the implementation of the decision, but told us to resolve it among ourselves. Our further appeal to the United Nations resulted in the same decision.

So, we went to the Eritrean government with some five or so peace proposals. We told them that we will accept the decision of the Border Commission unconditionally. We wanted to talk to them about the implementation of the decision and also to discuss our long term interests to prevent such problems from happening in the future. Despite our repeated efforts, the Eritrean government refused to sit and talk with us. This did not deter us from mapping out our peace agenda and moving forward on our own.

We started building our Defense Forces to make it capable of preventing war. Without compromising our strategy to fight hunger and poverty, we continued to build our forces. We made it clear to the enemy that if a second invasion were to happen, it will not be a question of a border dispute. In such an eventuality, we are ready to hit the enemy decisively, once and for all, so that there never is a threat of a third invasion. We have made this preparation by keeping our military budget at a mere 1.7%, so as not to impinge on our development projects.

Every September, our enemy from the North threatens to invade us. This has been going on for many years. But this year, they are singing a different song. This year, they are saying Ethiopia is going to invade them. This is a change in their strategy. This time, they want to fight us indirectly by using those same destructive forces within our country, like OLF and ONLF. If we go to war with Eritrea to eliminate these destructive forces inside our borders, it would be an expensive and futile endeavor. We have to do that fight inside Ethiopia, because the root cause is in Ethiopia and not in Asmara. OLF and ONLF have nothing in common with UIC, which wants to come and control the Anwar Mosque. The extremist elements of Kinijit cannot benefit from such actions by UIC. These elements and such tell us that Ethiopia's border extends to the Red Sea. They accuse us of giving away Eritrea. They have become more Shabia than Shabia itself.

These are the same elements that have gone to the American congress and begged it to pass laws to govern Ethiopia. This is a clear indication of their readiness to align with any anti-Ethiopian forces. It is this backward, and destructive strategy of the extremist elements inside the Kinijit leadership that has tied them to Shabia. It is this "zero sum" politics that we must fight.

The government has devised strategies to fight these elements. First, we want to make it clear to them that such "zero sum" politics is no good for peace, for economic progress and for lasting democracy. To that end we will design ways where by the people will reject such "zero sum" politics and its politicians. Second, we want to lay down the ground rules for peaceful opposition forces to freely advance their cause. Third, we want to punish those forces fighting by unconstitutional means, to the fullest allowable extent of the law. If the first strategy works, these forces will crumble to smithereens and the rest will be considered as a sickness on the part of some political personalities and as such will be a non-issue to us. We have done a lot toward accomplishing the other objectives too. We have sat down with opposition members and made changes in our parliamentary procedures, with our respective differences duly registered. For other opposition members, we have taken the necessary and allowable legal steps. These steps have caused some hiss and hum in certain circles. But it has resulted in significant weakening of the indirect war directed at us.

The Eritrean and the Ethiopian peoples have accepted our call for peaceful negotiations. The Eritrean people continue to understand our peaceful desire and our program to accomplish that. A clear indication of their desire for peace is the 300 to 400 Eritrean soldiers that cross the border every month to join us. We have come a long way indeed!

The world community that was perplexed at first, now understands our peace plan and we continue to see good progress in that area. The deliberate actions intended to sabotage our millennium never materialized. Americans have a saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Our strategy is working. Our economic progress is moving ahead unabated. Eritrean allegations of invasion are empty words, worthy of a petty gossip or a tall tale. If Eritrea intends to destroy and be destroyed, then bring it on!

Mr. Prime Minister: The issue of the People of Afar and the sea ports that they inhabit will continue to be a controversial issue. Without a peaceful resolution of the Eritrean situation, this issue will continue to divide us and will be foder for opposition forces.

HR2003and KINIJIT

This I find very interesting! The Chinese have a proverb. It is actually a curse. It says, "May You Live in Interesting Times." ( It might be related to the Chinese proverb, "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than is a man in a chaotic period." My addition) HR2003 is a curse. American congressmen trying to pass a law for Ethiopia? How the Election Board should look like? How it should be organized?

The two individuals who pushed for passage of this bill seemed to wish for us what they have in their United States. I can understand if they wanted us to have the same kind of election board that they have. But there is no such thing called "America Election Board." It is the states through the party in power that run elections. For example, the brother of President Bush was the person in charge of the election board in Florida.

(US Constitution Article I, Section 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. In Virginia, the State Election Board consists of three members. Board members are appointed to four-year terms by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. Administration of the office is the responsibility of the State Election Board Secretary. The Secretary of the State Election Board also serves as Secretary of the Senate.)

If these congressmen want to force it down our throat, we have news for them. We will not see it any differently than the Derg rhetoric: "To the children the choicest of the choice", when we now it is just a bait to torment an empty stomach. Their intent cannot be to share their democracy with us. If they think that we beg for wheat and then feel they can dictate to us what is good for our governance, then it is defiance; it is being an accomplice to malice.

The bill has yet to pass two very difficult steps before it becomes law. Even if the senate passes it, the President can veto the bill, unless two-third of the Senate and two-thirds of the House then vote in favor of the bill. So, it is not a law yet and we do not envision it to be one. Why? Because they will realize how wrong it is. As a policy it is erroneous. We are people not poor dogs. Our relationship with the United States is based on our common universal values and common interests. That relationship continues to thrive.

But the question is what if they pass it as a law? We cannot accept a law that these friends of ours wish on us. Because, it will be unconstitutional. Another parliament, other than our own, cannot legislate for us. We are told that their hand-out will be halted and our good relations will be jeopardized if we don't abide by it. The question for us is, will such reduction in aid choke our throat and interfere with our on going economic progress. Every penny obtained through aid or borrowing is crucial to our progress. On the other hand, if we miss a penny or more, our progress will not be hampered. We have seen it in 1998. When aid fell short, when many countries conspired to hurt us, when we got only 1/3 of what we were promised, we continued our economic growth at a rate of 11.8%. If the same thing happens in 2000 or 2002, we are better prepared to cope with it than 1998. These days, aid flows to us from different sources. We are not dependent on aid from Washington alone.

Those who left prison after asking for forgiveness have been seen pleading in Washington for the passage of HR2003. When these individuals left prison, they apologized in the open for their errors. Their apology was not limited to the government, but also to the Ethiopian people. They signed detailed documents specifying what they can and cannot do. They agreed to uphold and abide by the constitution and respect government agencies. When they gave us their word at the time, we had no reason to suspect that they were doing this to fool the government and get out of prison. Although they have not kept their word to date, and continue to rub shoulders with anti-Ethiopian forces, we believe it is only a matter of time before they realize their transgressions. They may have been busy meeting with their supporters in the Diaspora and will realize their errors in due course. However, even if there are provoking situations for us to act, we will wait not to the eleventh hour, but to the eleventh hour and fifty-nine minutes, in the hope that they may correct their blunders. If not, their mistakes will catch up with them and they will stumble and fall.

To expect the American Congress to pass laws that will influence the function of our Election Board is something I could not fathom coming from an opposition that intends to take power in our country. I believe this is the shameful aspect of what I referred to as " zero sum politics." Imagine our parliament member telling his constituency that the American Congress will enact laws to govern them. When I first heard that some members of this house said so, I did not believe my ears and asked that this information be verified. When it was confirmed to be true, I was briefly ashamed of being a member of this parliament.

The agenda for negotiations have been exported to the American Congress and are coming back to us with rules and regulations attached to them. They have thus excluded it from becoming our agenda in the future. Under these circumstances, I believe the ruling party should bar any such agenda. To gain a better perspective and learn a lesson for the future, I believe the ruling party may confer on this issue in the near future and advance an opinion.

Mr. Prime Minister: I hope you will continue your restraint and show magnanimity on the issue of Kinijit. Let us hope that they have learned enough lessons during their stay in Kality. Let us give them enough time to regroup and join the mainstream democratic movement. HR2003 is a sore on the back of the American Congress. I also hope they realize their errors and retire it to the recycle bean.

OGADEN

The situation in the Ogaden is, in the main the work of ONLF and Al Ittihad. To handle this situation we follow the same principles I outlined above:

1. Enabled the people to reject this zero sum politics.

2. Created a way they can peacefully accomplish their goals.

3. Administer punishments to those that embark on violent activities, to the maximum extent allowable by law.

We have also achieved very good success in arming the Somali Kilil people to fight these insurgents directly. Many have been wounded and have died while fighting to secure their area. We are now seeing peace and security in the region. Food aid organizations are doing their job well. The false information about the region was disparaged by UN agencies who went there and reported back saying that there is no humanitarian crisis now. We agreed to work together to avoid future problems. Both civilian and military aid is flowing to the area unrestricted.

What happened in 1977, where starving people were eating bone, shall never happen again.

The prime Minister is excused to attend to his next engagement.

11/29/07