BY Sudan Tribune

Thursday 7 January 2010.

January 6, 2010 (LONDON) — The London based Tullow Oil, is expected to prospect oil in Ethiopia after a deal signed with the US SouthWest Energy which holds acreage in the Horn of Africa country.

According to the HIS International Oil Letter, a weekly news letter on oil industry, Tullow will explore oil in Ogaden basin in blocks 9a, 9, and 13. SouthWest Energy’s blocks cover a total area of approximately 29,000 sq. km in the north-east part of the Ogaden Basin.

The Ethiopian government believes that the Ogaden basin, which covers 350,000 sq km (135,100 sq miles), contains gas reserves of some 4 trillion cubic feet. Officials point to neighboring countries such as Sudan and Yemen as evidence there could be major oil deposits under Ethiopia’s deserts.

The Ethiopian government downplays threats by an active rebel group in the region and stresses there would be five basins out of the troubled region.

The rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked an oil field in April 2007 where the separatist group killed 74 people, including nine Chinese employees of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, part of Sinopec, China’s biggest refiner and petrochemicals producer.

(ST)

=======================

Ethiopia says foiled rebel plan to attack through Sudan

Friday 8 January 2010.

January 7, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia on Thursday said that it has foiled a rebel attack orchestrated by exiled opponents along with the support of arch-foe Eritrea. The attacker crossed through the Sudanese border, it also said.

The Ethiopian government said that its security forces have held "terrorists" who were preparing to assassinate top government officials, destroy public facilities and major infrastructures of the country.

The state run TV (ETV) earlier today aired three men apprehended by security forces in Amhara region bordering Sudan. ETV has also aired a number of seized weapons it said were meant to be used for the plot.

"The terrorist head-off from Eritrea’s Tesene town and were detained while trying to sneak into Ethiopia via Sudan," said government statement.

In an interview with Ethiopian Television, the plotters admit receiving military training in Eritrea and also receiving various weapons from Eritrea.

They also said that they were ordered to disrupt Ethiopia’s upcoming election.

Last week Ethiopia told Sudan that Eritrea was being prepared to use Sudanese territories for "terrorism" missions.

Speaking at the 12th Ethiopia-Sudan border development commission meeting in the northern Mekelle town, director for National Security and Intelligence Service, Getachew Assefa urged the joint commission to seriously look into Eritrea’s intention.

"According to our latest intelligence sources, the Eritrean government is making all the necessary preparations to use the long Ethiopia-Sudan common border to smuggle ‘terrorists’ and anti-Ethiopian forces into to our soil" said the director then.

Sudan to its part responded to Ethiopia’s alarm promising to fully cooperate.

"Sudan won’t allow any of its territories to be a save heaven for anti-Ethiopia forces considered as threats to the Ethiopian people and to country’s peace and development." Sudanese presidential advisor, General Salah Abdalla Gosh said.

Ethiopia has repeatedly accused Eritrea being behind a number of terrorist acts in its soil; something Asmara denies.
(ST)

======================

Changing Oromo’s Potential Energy for Lasting Freedom | Opinion -January 8, 2010

By Ebissa Ragassa*

Since the Gadaa Republic of Oromia was occupied a century or so ago by outdated political system, our struggle to regain what once was a free and progressive society has remained our aspiration. The Oromo movement has produced measurable progress with each passing day, repealing domination, rising conscious among our people and others within the Ethiopian empire. Today, our struggle is at the final gate standing still, demanding, and waiting for our unified action.

In this paper, I will address five vital topics and necessary steps the Oromo people must take to regain the Gadaa Republic of Oromia. I will mention what we must focus on to attain independence and to transition Oromia into a prosperous modern state. I will be focusing on the following important topics:

1. Financial Unity

2. Oromo Centralized Communications System OCCS / mass media

3. The need to engage the current political affairs of Ethiopia

4. Holding Oromo political organizations responsible

5. Setting Goal

Financial Unity

Money is one of the most important goals the Oromo movement must take into consideration before even launching a struggle of any kind. Attaining organized financial power must be the single most important task all Oromo organizations must strive to achieve without fail. Money should be where the energy of all Oromo leaders and activists should be spent to give the struggle proper directions and potent power. Thus far, as an observer, Oromo political parties lack tremendous amount of financial resources. To amend this shortcoming, we must launch financial unity campaigns until adequate financial power has been achieved. While most Oromo political organizations in existence today possess the desired qualities, such as vision, determinations, and articulating Oromo causes, they all lack the necessary financial resources to build Oromia.

In order to achieve organized financial power, a paradigm change must take place within our organizations. As much as we agitate the Oromo public to stand up and fight against the undemocratic government, we must make financial unity prerequisite; we must make financial unity a critical force – without it, our action remains an illusion. As much as our people crave for bilisummaa, we must make the connection that without financial unity, bilisummaa is not possible. The importance of this concept cannot be repeated enough; financial unity is the new paradigm and should be the new slogan our organizations must chant, day in day out. As a soldier cannot fight without a gun, an organization cannot function without financial resources. In fact, organizations that lack adequate financial ability only exist on paper. This is the big factor that differentiates Oromo organizations from our adversaries; while we possess the moral upper-hand – a human rights cause, we are unable to make greater impacts.

Modern struggle is waged with finance; this is an important concept our leader must grasp and quickly incorporate into their daily routines. A modern man’s army is money. In the past, an organized society and the size of the population made great difference in conquering and implementing the structure of the state. But today, in the globalization era, financially organized country dominants over those that possess greater natural resources and population. The secret of these powerful countries lies in their organized financial power. The size of land occupied, the size of a population are useless without forming financial unity and without arming people with financial knowledge. In the past, a battle was won with people’s blood; today freedom is maintained and advanced by financial power; we can not afford to continue to use outdated mode of struggle in a changed world. And so our leaders, our activists and communities must deploy financially literate Oromo citizens to capture the next decade.

Money is the Weapon of Mass Liberation (WML); money is much more important than gun. Although in the past we have failed to organize the Oromo people financially, today we must take a step to build financial unity. Oromo organizations’ initial automatic reaction is to overlook the decisive role money plays. In fact, strong financial power will accelerate the goal of achieving and forming the state of Oromia in few years.

The single most import objective of this paper will be to introduce the Oromo masses and organizations to financial consciousness. Once we attain critical financial unity, liberation and freedom for the Oromo people are guaranteed. Money can make peace or war; it is all how it is utilized. The power of money is tremendous, but what is much more important is achieving collective financial power. Here just in North America, if we organize 10,000 Oromo people to contribute $30.00 a month, how much is our collective power? That is $300,000 a month. That is a large sum of money. In one year, our financial power will exceed three million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000). One can only imagine how much difference one can make with that amount of money.

How Can Financial Unity Be Built?

The how-to is always the hardest part of all, but we should not be deterred, because the main purpose of this paper is to lay down some simple basic blueprint on how to start such powerful program. How can we make financial unity practical in reality? How can we make this idea an automatic function of our organizations? One, it only takes few people to initiate and run this program, but it requires the participation of willing, freedom-yerning, visionary Oromo people who share similar dream and aspirations to bring it into existence.

What I propose is that we, the Oromos in North America, experiment with this idea before other Oromos adopt similar financial unity programs. The reasons are that:

1) Oromos in North America have the benefit of residing in a country where dreams can be made real, where individual freedom of thinking is rewarded.

2) It is our duty to take advantage of the many wonderful opportunities America offers, such as its technological resources, the freedom to organize ourselves, the freedom to build empowering institutions and to embark on whatever endeavor we wish to undertake without fear of government suppression, which exists in Oromia.

3) It is important that we succeed in organizing ourselves financially and duplicate similar financial enterprises to other Oromos in different countries before advocating similar actions. This will not only build strong Oromo organizations and advance the Oromo movement tremendously, but it also empowers the Oromo people in their daily lives.

All politically-conscious Oromo individuals must take the initiative to contribute $30.00 a month.

1) This bank account will be managed by a Board of Directors, who are politically neutral within Oromo organizations.

2) The bank shall have regional branches or chapters.

3) A panel of well-informed, genuinely progressive individuals determines the disbursements of the fund.

4) The fund shall only be used to advance the Oromo cause in political arena and all other aspects.

OCCS – Oromo Centralized Communications System

After having established financial unity, our next step must be to build a centralized communication center, where information can be exchanged among our diverse large population. Without communication, our people are blind, how can we see each other? How can we organize? And how can we build unity? We need media – be it print or radio – where all Oromos can debate, criticize, exchange vital information. These media must be accessible to all Oromos. Even if we are unable build a new centralized communications system for the time being, we must interconnect the existing Oromo media outlets and centralize them. Fragmented communication is more harmful than no communication at all. Fragmentation creates confusion; confusion is the weapon the enemy will use to slow us down. We must rethink, redesign how our existing communication outlets, websites, radios, books function to achieve maximum communication power; our goal is to create well-informed Oromo global citizens that see beyond the Ethiopian affairs. We must build a fair and balanced media where all Oromos can go and drink from the same river of truth.

Ethiopia’s Current Affairs

The nature of Ethiopia is one of the issues that tends to create diverse opinions among Oromo citizens; these opinions manifest into sources of discrepancy among political organizations. These arise out of not fully understanding Ethiopia at a microscopic level and not examining our preconceived ideas, rather most Oromos have macroscopic view of Ethiopia. This tends to create different perceptions. These personal opinions are used as reasons not to work together and divide our collective strength. Understanding the current affairs of Ethiopia, understanding how the state functions are essential for every Oromo citizen in order to change the structure of Ethiopia. You cannot change what you do not know; you cannot fight an entity you do not understand; and you cannot become free without knowing what causes our oppression. It’s more important for Oromos to know more about Ethiopia than the Abyssinians themselves because superior knowledge about Ethiopian history, knowing how the people think and act, and knowing what the basic philosophy of the Ethiopian state is – help us determine the weaknesses and strengths; therefore, our forces can be designed to counter them without much effort.

Oromo citizens, who speak Amharic or who were not fortunate enough to learn Oromiffa as a mother tongue, and who possess communications, are assets for the Oromo struggle. These multilingual individuals should not be mistakenly judged as defectors or traitors against the Oromo movement for their lack of Oromiffa and should not be treated unfavorably based on their unjust experiences, but rather should be given the task of infiltrating, educating the Ethiopian public on the issue of the Oromo cause.

Taking interest in the Ethiopian current affairs is advantageous for the Oromo people

We must distinguish that taking part in the Ethiopian current affairs does not mean that we support the Ethiopian status quo or how Ethiopia functions. Our disassociation as a whole from Ethiopia’s current affairs may be disadvantageous to us. There may be some Oromo issues that need to be addressed through the Ethiopian context; there may be some resources we derive from the Ethiopian context; these interests should not be mistaken as supporting the Ethiopian unity and be classified as anti-Oromo, but rather should be considered as strategic, tactical acts. When we pay close attention, stay close to what is taking place in Ethiopia, and take interest; we can eliminate many problems, and take preemptive actions before harm can be done.

Oromo Political Organizations

All Oromo political organizations must act in the interest of the Oromo people, must be held responsible to their mission statement; if they divert from their mission statement, we must punish them by disassociating, by withholding our financial support. Oromo political organizations must find ways to attract greater number of supporters. What is especially most important is to encourage and create a stage where debates can take place on regular basis among Oromo citizens. Encouraging critical thinking and forming think-tank groups are vital. Criticisms are crucial for political organizations as the experimental process is inseparable from science. Without the process of experimental methods, science will not have yielded its fruits to the human race, and without deliberate dialogues with its people, a political organization will not mature to the level of trusted organizations.

Setting Goal

A movement without a goal is a movement that is bound to never reach its destination. We must enter an era where our organizations are measured by the results they produce rather than by empty noise and rhetoric they disseminate. Our support must go to organizations that are active, that seek to create and advance the Oromos cause based on the current state of affairs, rather than past historical events.

The idea of liberation or creating the state of Oromia must be broken down into small pieces so that time can be attached to them. General stand, vague tendency to act should not be accepted. Rather, we must encourage organizations that strive to accomplish specific goals and achieve them within reasonable time. It has been over 30 years since the struggle for asserting Oromo people’s right has begun; nevertheless, considerable accomplishments have been gained since, there still remains much more to be achieved. We should reject organizations that function or adopted the idea of “one day we will achieve our goal,” but we should insist on an organization that sets goals for itself and deadlines to achieve whatever the mission is and communicates its intentions openly to its supporters, thereby preventing doubt and mistrust that plague our different organizations today. The layback approach is not working and has not worked. We should side with an organization that breaks down its goals into smaller manageable pieces and deliver results, rather than organizations that promise the world and never deliver on their promises.

The responsibility of concerned Oromo citizens is to challenge their organizations to set goals. It is vital for organizations to sell their plan in the form of publicizing their project’s due date. This creates an emotional attachment, and installs courage and hope among the mass, thereby organizations receive considerable amount of support. The competition among Oromo political organizations should be on when to get certain projects done, not on the difference their projects entail. The efficiency of an organization is measured by how quickly it sets goals for itself and achieve them.

* Ebissa Ragassa is a freelance writer and can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

========================

End the Oromo Genocide in Ethiopia! Stop the Amhara - Tigray Agenda of Kushitic Mass Extermination!

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
January 08, 2010

Warning: getimagesize() [function.getimagesize]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /var/www/html/americanchronicle.com/views/articles/print.php on line 47

Warning: getimagesize

(http://www.americanchronicle.com/img/galleries/1225/0/Oromiya.jpg) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /var/www/html/americanchronicle.com/views/articles/print.php on line 47

Guilty of Racist Discrimination Against Oromos in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia)´ (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/1354520), I republished part of an overwhelming Memorandum submitted by the Oromo Parliamentarians Council to many international organizations, governmental bodies, diplomatic representations, political parties, cultural associations, and NGOs.

Under the original title ´Complaint Statement on Racial Discrimination of Political, Social and Cultural Rights of Oromos in Ethiopia´, the text makes state of an appalling situation that people allover the world simply cannot accept without being at the same time deprived of their own humanity.

In the first article, I republished the following parts of the devastating Memorandum: ´Introduction´, ´Background´, ´Ethiopia: Land of Silence and Human Rights Violations´, and ´Ethiopia: one ethnic minority manipulating majority´.

In the present article, I will republish further parts of the Memorandum that makes clear that tolerance of, or indifference toward, the racist and criminal Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinian elites is not an option for the civilized world.

The Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinian gangsters represent less than 18% of the country´s population, and after having subjugated many Eastern African Kushitic and Nilo-Saharan nations (Oromos, Ogadenis, Afars, Sidamas. Kambaatas, Shekachos, Kaffas, Gedeos, Wolayitas, Hadiyas, Anuak, Nuer and Gumuz) and occupied their lands, they carried out an unprecedented, systematic, covered but multifaceted, cultural and physical, genocide against all of the aforementioned nations.

The unrepresentative, ethnic-based, pseudo-diplomats of Abyssinia, when supposedly representing Abyssinia (fallaciously renamed ´Ethiopia´), promote the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) tribal agenda of East African mass extermination and facilitate the methodic genocidal plans that have long been undertaken by the Amhara – Tigray (Semitic Abyssinian) tyrants against all of the aforementioned Kushitic and Nilo-Saharan nations.

This inhuman situation, which is the daily reality lived by more than 65 million people in the colonial state of Abyssinia, strikingly contradicts speeches full of democratic promises and lectures full of economic pledges hypocritically made by the administrations of Western capitals to either Europeans or Africans.

It is therefore imperative that European and North American administrations remove their support offered to the said racist and criminal tribes and setup a UN-sponsored investigation committee that would lead to cruel gangster Meles Zenawi´s impeachment and to Ethiopia´s ultimate and most demanded demolition and dismemberment.

In forthcoming articles, I will complete the republication of the extraordinary Memorandum.

E t h i o p i a: L a n d o f S i l e n c e a n d S t a r v a t i o n

Malas Zenawi uses famine as bullet to killed poor people.

A famine is growing across Ethiopia, but the government is clamping down on information - even ejecting aid agencies that could help bring aid for fear of provoking unrest and losing their grip on power; Finally, after months of mystifying delays, the government announced in late October that 6.2 million people needed emergency aid; but the realty is nowadays 12 to 18 million people needs aid.

Meles Zenawi is responsible for unlawful war against Eritrea and Somalia which the country lost 120 thousands life and scours economy which bring greet inflation in Ethiopia for first time.

Meles Zenawi state terrorist still not ready to accept the international borders committee dissection for peace with Eritrea. Meles straggle sanctions on Eritrea through his USA friends. Any sanctions on Eritrea automatically can bring destabilization and collapses of the Horn African states

P o l i t i c a l R i g h t s

The FDRE constitution of Article 38 grants the right to Vote and to be elected. It provides citizens the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through generally free and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage; however, violence and intimidation of voters and elected parliamentarian were observed.

In practice, the EPRDF ruling party dominated the government.

Elected parliamentarians and members of other political parties were subjected to executions or other acts of inhumanity. For instance, Mr. Adane was an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament representing the Oromo Peoples Congress Party (OPC). A week after the election of may 2005 a police shot and killed Mr. Adane in Arsi Negele town.

The Oromo people have used their constitutional rights to elect the person or party they wanted. However, the ruling party EPRDF is being dominated by the Tigrean Peoples Liberation (TPLF) did not want to see the strong opposition in the government. That is why they killed Mr. Adane who represented the people who elected him.

Police began harassing the parliamentarians after a February 2006 regional council meeting. There were no developments in the 2006 beatings of one regional parliamentarian of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM) and five of the Oromo National Congress.

We MPE faced all types of torches, imprisonment, confiscations of property and so much more due to our commitment to the rule of law in the country. As we were not allowed to speak in the parliament, except sitting and listening to the ruling party agenda and observing the so-called majority vote approval of the laws we tried to demonstrated out biggest pain by tying our mouth with cloth before the delegates of all countries, which did nothing but enhanced our persecution.

In due time, many were imprisoned without due process of the law, in history of Ethiopia 11 MPs of Oromo national origin left the country, after they faced all unbelievable persecution in their life including their families and friends .

1. MP. Dr. Getachew Jigi

2. MP Mr. Abiyot Kebede

3. MP. Mr. Teshome Bedasa

4. MP. Mr. Akasa Kisy

5. MP. Mr. Chala Bekele

6. MP. Mr. Siraji Husen

7. MP. Mr. Tafara Lagasa

8. MP. Mr. Girma Chala

9. MP. Mr. Lebeta Fufa

10. RMP. Ms Sara Mamo

11. Mr. Gezehny Bekel

On September 13, 2007, police beat regional parliamentarian Wegayehu Dejene of Me´ea District, Oromia Region, and his family members. Wegayehu filed several complaints with local authorities, but no action had been taken till now.

Ms. Biraanee Dhufeeraa, Ms. Isqeel Gamada and Mr. Asfaw Banti were students supporters of Oromo Federalist Movement (OFDM) and were killed at Kiltu Karra district of Western Wollega Zone of Oromia region on 21 December 2005 by the security forces.

The Oromo Parliamentarian Council is informed that militias´ head of the district, named Waagari Jigi, ordered the killing of the OFDM supporters and wounded many others students like Damaye Olana, Abdi Umataa, Ifee Mardasa in Kiltu Karra district.

Oromo students are discriminately killed in Inangoo 2, Bojii Dirmaji 2, Gimbi 5, Xiquri Inxini 2, Chalia 3, Ambo 1; and in Jaldu district 3 students were killed in cold-blooded murder.

There was no investigation into the 2006 killing by federal police of 15 demonstrators in the East Wallega zone, Guduru District.

Until now the Oromo students in all universities are targeted for disappearing and killing.

During the year some political leaders, including federal and regional MPs, were discouraged from traveling to their constituencies to meet with supporters, although others visited constituents without incident.

For example, OFDM chairman Bulcha Demeksa was persuaded not to visit his constituency in Wellega district, Oromiya Region, because the government told him his security could not be guaranteed. Some local officials blocked some opposition MPs´ access to their constituencies, arguing that as federal MPs, they had no reason to visit.

In February 2008, before the local elections, ruling party cadres detained an opposition member and candidate for seven times during the 15 days following his registration as a district candidate in Western Oromia. They alternately threatened to fire him from his teaching job, relocate him to a rural site, and kill him and his children.

On March 2, 2008, the opposition Oromo People´s Congress party reported that Degaga Gebissa, a party member from Meta-Robi District, Oromia Region, was taken from his house by police, shot and killed. Police allegedly refused to allow an autopsy or to provide any information to OPC party officials.

On March 9, 2008 police and local officials beat federal parliamentarian Gutu Mulisa while he campaigned for the OPC in Elfeta District, Oromia Region. Gutu filed a complaint with Elfeta District Police. At year's end, the case was still pending.

In January 2007, the Ethiopian government militias collected many Oromos from different parts of Oromia, arrested them, and transferred them in an illegal prison camp known as China camp, in Meso, in Hararge zone. The people arrested were suspected of being members or supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). OPC learned that many of these political prisoners were killed on the hill called Gara Sufi, close to Meso town, in east Oromia.

About 20 Oromos were killed on the Gara Sufi, and were thrown for hyenas to be eaten. The Voice America Radio Afaan Oromo Program made an interview with families of the victims. (Audio clips from VOA can be supplied)

Ayisha Ali, Kadijjaa Usuman is the wife of the late Obbo Ahmed Mohhamed Kuree from Mi´essoo. She and her late husband have nine children - eight girls and one boy whom she just stopped breastfeeding.

The TPLF government is also active in refuge murder in the wider Horn of Africa area. The Ethiopian security forces, with the support of Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti governments, deport Oromo political refugees also harassing them in the abroad. In 2008 Somalia´s Puntland (Bossasso) 65 Oromos were killed, 100 wounded, and 250 homes were burned down by Ethiopia army.

The Meles Zenawi Government to change the people´s image uses all methods of conflicts, civil or international, regular or irregular. With the TPLF, regime-instigated conflict between Guji Oromos and Konsos took place, and 40 people lost their lifes, dozens were wounded, and properties were destroyed.

In the historic place of Madda Walabu, many Oromos have lost their historical territories and hundreds lost their lives. In Messo and many other places, a scheme was prepared by the government to involve Oromos and Somalis in conflict, and in the process many civilian Oromos were murdered by the well armed groups.

In Wondo Genet more than 40 Oromos were killed by raids.

Between May 17 and 19, 2008, the Gumuz militias of the regional state of Benshangul/Gumuz, backed by TPLF regime, mercilessly and with no pretext attacked numerous unarmed Oromo civilians, burnt down their houses, indiscriminately killed and amputated elders and children, thus forcing thousands to flee their homes.

According to information received, about 400 people have been killed in the process; 65 people were killed in Haroo Waataa village of Saasiggaa alone. No less than 115 dead bodies were found and buried in just four mass graves. The remaining bodies are either burned by the perpetrators or eaten by wild dogs and hyenas. Over 12000 people have left their homes and camped in Naqamtee town and at the surroundings of a primary school, in the Saasiggaa district.

As of 30/10/2008, the TPLF-led Ethiopian government has put under unlawful detention more than 100 Oromos in different cities of Oromiya, including the capital city, under the notorious pretext of supporting the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

It is the high time for all international and governmental bodies worldwide to interfere in the unprecedented Human Rights violations perpetrated against the Oromo Nation, and thus secure their constitutional freedom.

(To be continued)

Note

You can contact the Oromo Parliamentarians Council here:

Gumii Paarlaamaa Oromoo (GPO),

Oromo Parliamentarians Council (OPC)

Sint-Jobstraat 43, 2060 Antwerpen, Belgium

Tel. 00 32 488 47 93 60

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website: www.oromoparliamentarians.org

Note

Picture: the administrative provinces of the colonial state of Abyssinia do not represent the real borders of the subjugated Afar, Oromo, Ogadenis and Southern nations; they only represent the villainous and criminal desire of the ruling racist Amharas to create a fake Amhara region enlarged in order to incorporate lands that do not belong to them. The real Amhara state that will be left after the secession of Ogaden, Afar, Oromos and the Southern peoples will have less than half the size of the fake province. Following the dissolution of Abyssinia, the Tigray region will be incorporated in Eritrea.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/printFriendly/135858

===========================

Ethiopia drought leaves millions hungry

08 January 2010

Caritas is launching an appeal for Ethiopia after massive crop failure has left millions of people in need of food.

Funds raised from the US$1.9 million (1.3 million euro) appeal will finance projects including improved nutrition among children and pregnant and nursing mothers, awareness raising about food and water management and training in water hygiene.

Over 68,300 people will receive Caritas help across five dioceses for eight months. The drought is mainly affecting the east and south of the country and some parts of the north.

Drought caused by poor rains has led to a critical food and water shortage in large parts of the Horn of Africa. Up to 23 million people have difficulties accessing enough food and water for their daily needs.

In Ethiopia, 6.2 million people need emergency help. This doesn’t include 8 million people who already receive Government assistance as part of a safety net programme.

Recent unseasonal rains in Ethiopia are benefiting some crops but many people’s health is already weakened by malnutrition. Lack of access to clean water has also led to outbreaks of diarrhea in some areas – an illness which can kill if treatment isn’t given.

For more information, please contact Michelle Hough on +39 06 69879721/+39 334 2344136 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

http://www.caritas.org/newsroom/press_releases/ethiopia_drought_leaves_millions_hungry.html

=========================

A country on the precipice

Daniel Flitton
January 9, 2010

DISASTROUSLY poor, corrupt, awash with weapons and beset by rebellions in the north and south, Yemen is a country on the precipice. The population is growing rapidly, swollen by thousands of refugees pouring across the Red Sea from Somalia and Ethiopia. Meanwhile jobs are scarce, water supplies are drying up and the economy is spiralling downwards as once plentiful oil reserves disappear. And, like a parasite feeding on decay, al-Qaeda is making the most of it.

Yemen is cursed by the short memories of Western powers. The country was once a locus of Cold War rivalry, battered and divided at the edge of a strategic gateway from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. But as ideological fervour subsided, it was quickly forgotten.

In 1994, the world barely noticed that Yemen was beset by civil war only four years after the northern and southern halves had reunited as a single country. It is a unification many in the resource-rich south continue to reject, tired of exploitation by a small ruling elite from the north.

Adding to these tensions, Houthi rebels in the northern highlands, followers of Shia Islam, have been fighting the central government since 1962. Government control has been reduced to a few military checkpoints scattered across the country. Yemen is a mess. But the world temporarily took notice in 2000 after a sophisticated US naval warship was bombed by two men in an explosive-laden speedboat in the gulf port of Aden. Had memories been longer, the attack might have been thwarted. Terrorists had tried the same tactic a few months earlier against another American destroyer anchored at the same port, only to fail when their speedboat sank under the weight of the explosives.

Global concern about Yemen should have been sustained when al-Qaeda struck a giant French oil tanker off the coast two years later, leading to a spike in world oil prices. But it was not to be. Yemen slipped into the background once more as the ''war on terror'' turned to distant fields, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now Yemen is again in the focus of international attention after the attempt on Christmas Day to blow up a Detroit-bound passenger jet by a man who trained with Yemen-based terrorists. Also, a radical Yemeni preacher was linked to a man who shot up a US army base in Texas in November.

Fearing attack from al-Qaeda, Western embassies in Yemen shut down for several days this week. Britain has called a summit later this month to thrash out ideas for international assistance and Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh - one of the Arab world's longest-ruling dictators - is under extreme pressure to crack down on al-Qaeda militants roaming freely in the country's desert badlands. ''The instability in Yemen is a threat to regional stability and even global stability,'' US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned.

Yemen is emerging as a new front on the war on terror and there has been talk - however unlikely - of deploying US troops to support struggling government forces against al-Qaeda. Top US general David Petraeus flew in to Yemen's capital, Sana'a, to deliver his own blunt message to the regime: time to act.
Sarah Phillips is a lecturer at the University of Sydney. She spent four years living in Yemen researching the country's politics and last year published a report on al-Qaeda's efforts to gain a foothold with local tribes. Yemen, she says, is a nation on the edge.

''With an economically depressed, young and poorly educated population, Yemen offers a significant recruiting pool for the organisation,'' she wrote. ''It would also allow the movement to show … that it is still active and even capable of regeneration, particularly as it comes under increasing pressure in Pakistan.''
Yemen has deep historical ties to al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's descendants lived in villages scattered through the rocky canyons in the north, before crossing into what is now modern Saudi Arabia.

Bin Laden himself travelled to Yemen in the early 1990s, reportedly looking to marry a daughter of a local tribe and win its allegiance.

When American intelligence was still tracking bin Laden's satellite telephone in the late 1990s, he made more than 200 calls from Afghanistan to Yemen - more than almost anywhere else.
''There have been militants operating in the country for a long, long period of time,'' Phillips says.

Large groups of Yemeni mujahideen returned from the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and the regime sought to co-op them into the civil war against southern secessionists. But over the past year, al-Qaeda's influence in Yemen has grown.

''It really kicked off again in February 2006 with the group of 23 militants who escaped from prison,'' says Phillips. Early terrorist operations were haphazard but gradually became more sophisticated as local operatives joined forces with the remnants of the al-Qaeda franchise from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. A new terrorist outfit, ''Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula'', was proclaimed in January 2009, led by Nasser al-Wahayshi, a former aide to bin Laden.

Wahayshi attracted fresh followers returning from fighting in Afghanistan and, awkwardly for Washington, former inmates from Guantanamo Bay. The al-Qaeda offshoot found a home in Yemen's tribal regions and last August took its fight back across the border into Saudi Arabia with an attempt on the life of the kingdom's security chief, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. The plot failed but it didn't deter al-Qaeda using the same tactic again, this time targeting the flight to Detroit.

Western policy makers are now focused on the question of how to fight al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Yemen's Foreign Minister, Abu-Bakr al-Qirbi, is sure of one thing, at least - any direct US military intervention would be disastrous for his country. ''Yemen has never been, and will never be a safe haven for the al-Qaeda organisation or any terrorist elements, and will never be a springboard for terrorist operations that threaten Yemeni, regional or international interests and security,'' he says.

Asked on an Arabic television station on Wednesday if American forces already had a role fighting al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen, the minister was equally firm. ''There is none,'' he said.

But few believe him. Reports of American special forces operating covertly inside Yemen quickly surfaced after the failed Christmas Day attack. Unmanned US attack drones have hit suspected al-Qaeda members in Yemen before and the White House has made it clear this is a new front in the long fight against al-Qaeda.
But equally, no one much believes the US or its Western allies will deploy large numbers of troops. Talk of Yemen as the next Afghanistan-like conflict is overblown. ''There is a lot of debate among them about how far they should get involved in Yemen,'' al-Qirbi said. ''I'm sure that their experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be very useful to learn from - that direct intervention complicates things.''

So where does that leave American efforts to combat al-Qaeda in Yemen? The Pentagon has already promised millions of dollars in military aid to help the ailing regime. For President Saleh, this renewed attention carries the potential for a financial lifeline for a country whose oil reserves - the main source of income for the nation of about 24 million - are fast disappearing. Production has plunged from about 465,000 barrels a day in 2003 to just over half that amount.

With the rebellion in the south also sapping Yemen's economy (and the most direct threat to Saleh's rule) the regime is positioning itself as a bulwark against al-Qaeda's growing foothold. ''Our priority is to receive development aid,'' said al-Qirbi, ''and then comes the assistance to build and strengthen our units to counter terrorism.''

But human rights organisations are wary. ''For the first time in years, Saleh appears to be making a good-faith effort to crack down on al-Qaeda, but his previous record has been fickle at best,'' says Letta Tayler, a researcher with the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

''When pressured by the US, his pattern has been to round up the usual suspects and leave them languishing in prison, while key al-Qaeda operatives with the right tribal connections remain free.''
Tayler also worries US assistance to the regime will invariably become entangled in Yemen's two armed rebellions, with the risk local people will be killed. Al-Qaeda will then exploit any further resentment of the US as a recruitment tool.

''It has taken the US years to learn the lesson that civilian casualties hurt its efforts to rout the Taliban in Afghanistan. It suffered a similar backlash when its missiles intended for militants struck civilians in Somalia in 2007 and 2008. President Obama should not make the same mistake in Yemen.''
Daniel Flitton is diplomatic editor.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/world/a-country-on-the-precipice-20100108-lyxi.html
http://www.theage.com.au/action/printArticle?id=1025046