በኮንዶሚኒየም ቤቶች ሺያጭ ሥም ስደተኛውን የወያኔ ጭሰኛ ለማድረግ የተጀመረው እንቅስቃሴ ይከሽፋል::

ወያኔ እንደ ድርጅት የሚፈልገውን የፖለቲካ ጥቅም የሚያስገኝለት እስከመሰለው ድረስ በህዝብና በአገር ላይ የማይፈጽማቸው ምንም አይነት እኩይ ተግባሮች እንደማይኖሩ በተግባር ያስመሰከረ ድርጅት ነው::
ለአብነት ያህል ለመጥቀስ ፤

1. ድርጅቱ ገና ትግራይ በረሃ ውስጥ ትግል ላይ በነበረበት ወቅት የትግራይን ወጣቶች ከትምህርት ገበታቸው እያነቀ በመውሰድ አላማውን በግልጽ ላልተረዱትና ላላመኑበት ጦርነት ማግዶአቸዋል:: በዚህም የተነሳ ወያኔ እራሱ ይፋ ባደረገው አሃዝ ብቻ ቁጥራቸው 60 ሺህ የሆኑ ለጋ ወጣቶች ላለፉት 22 አመታት የህዝባችንን ስቃይና መከራ እያራዘመ ያለውን የድርጅቱን መሪዎች ሥልጣን ላይ አውጥቶ ለማንገስ ከፍተኛ የህይወት መስዋዕትነት ከፍለዋል ::
2. የአገራችንን ክብርና መልካም ገጽታ እስከዛሬ አበላሽቶ ባለፈው በዚያ አስከፊ የ1977ቱ ድርቅ ወቅት ለትግራይ ተጎጂዎች ከአለም አቀፍ ለጋሾች የተበረከተውን የነፍስ አድን እህል በሱዳን በኩል ወደውጭ አሳልፎ በመቸብቸብ መሪዎቹና ተከታዮቻቸው ለተንደላቀቀ ኑሮ ሲበቁ በብዙ ሺህ የሚቆጠሩ ህጻናት፤ አሮጊቶችና አዛውንቶች እንደቅጠል እንዲረግፉ ምክንያት ሆኖአል::
3. የትግራይ ህዝብ ተማሮ በመንግሥት ላይ እንዲያምጽ ለመቀስቀስ በደሃው አቅማችን የተገነቡ ትምህርት ቤቶችን፤ የህክምን አገልግሎት መስጫ ተቋሞችን ፤ ድልድዮችንና ሌሎች መሠረተ ልማቶችን በፈንጂና በመድፍ ከማውደም አልፎ የተሳሳተ መረጃ ለደርግ በመስጠት ቁጥራቸው በውል ያልታወቀ ህዝብ ለገበያ እንደወጣ ሃውዜን ከተማ ላይ በጠራራ ጸሃይ እንዲጨፈጨፍ አድርጎአል::
4. የደርግ አገዛዝ ከተወገደ ቦኋላ ሥልጣን ላይ ለመደላደል የሚያስችል ድጋፍ ለመሸመት ሲባል የአገራችንን ሉአላዊ ጥቅም ለባዕድ አሳልፎ የሰጠ በርካታ ግልጽና ድብቅ ውሎችን ከ3ኛ አካላት ጋር ፈጽሞአል :: ከውሎቹ አንዱ የህዝባችንን ትኩረት ለማስለወጥ ካለፈው 2 አመት ጀምሮ በሰፊው እየተዘመረለት የሚገኘው የአባይ ወንዝን የመጠቀም መብታችንን የሚጻረር እንደነበረ ጉልህ ማስረጃ አለ::
5. በሚሊዮን የሚጠጋ ህዝባችንን ከቀያቸው በማፈናቀል ለም መሬታችንንና ድንግል የተፈጥሮ ሃብታችንን ለህንድ ፡ ለቻይናና ለአረብ ከበርቴዎች በመቸብቸብ በገዛ አገራችን የባዕድ አሽከር እንዲንሆን ፈርዶብናል::
6. በመቶ ሺዎች የሚቆጠሩ ሴት እህቶቻችን ለባርነት ሥራ ወደ አረብ አገር በመላክ ከፍተኛ ሰቆቃ እንድፈጸምባቸው በማድረግ ብሄራዊ ክብራችንን ኩራታችንን የሚያጎድፍ ተግባር ፈጽሞአል::
7. በሙስናና ዘረፋ የተጨማለቀ ሥርዓት በማቋቋም አብዛኛው ህዝባችን ከወለል በታች ወደወረደ የድህነት አረንቋ ውስጥ ገብቶ የቁም ስቃይ እንዲቀበል አድርጎአል::
8. መብታቸውን ለማስከበር በጠየቁ ወገኖቻችን ላይ እስከ አፍንጫው የታጠቀ ጦር በማዝመት በርካቶችን አስጨፍጭፎአል፤ ከቤት ንብረታቸው አፈናቅሎአል ፤ ለእስርና ለስደት ዳርጎአቸዋል:: ወዘተ

ወያኔ ይህንንና ግዝፈታቸው ከዚህ የከበዱ በርካታ ሰቆቃዎችን በአገርና በወገን ላይ እየፈጸመ የአገዛዝ ዘመኑን ሊያራዝም የቻለው፤

1. ህዝባችን በዘር ፤ በቋንቋና በሃይማኖት ተከፋፍሎ እርስ በርሱ እንዳይተማመንና የጎሪጥ እንድተያይ ሌት ተቀን ተንኮል በመሸረቡ
2. የጦር ሃይል ፤ የፖሊስ ሠራዊት፤ የደህንነትና ሌሎች የኢኮኖሚና ማህበራዊ አገልግሎት መስጫ ተቋሞች በሙሉ ከአንድ አካባቢ በተሰባሰቡ የጥቅም ተጋሪዎች ቁጥጥር ሥር እንዲወድቅ ተደርጎ እሺ ያለውን በጥቅም እምቢ ያለውን ደግሞ በጠመንጃ ሃይል ጸጥ ለጥ ለማድረግ በመመኮሩ፤
3. ከራሳቸው የግል ሚቾትና ቅንጦት አሻግረው በወገንና በአገር ላይ እየተፈጸመ ያለውን ሰቆቃ ማየት የማይፈልጉ ወይም የማይችሉ ተፈጥሮአዊ ባህሪያቸው “ እኔ ከሞትኩ ሠርዶ አይብቀል “ ካለቺው እንስሳ የማይለይ ሆዳሞች ከተለያየ የህበረሰተሰብ ክፍል ተመልምለው ከአገዛዙ ዙሪያ በሎሌነት ለመሰለፍ በመቻላቸው እንደሆነ ይታወቃል::

በሌላ አገላለጽ ወያኔ የአገዛዝ እድሜውን ለማራዘም የፈጸመውና እየፈጸመ ያለው ቀደም ሲል ፋሽስት ጣሊያን የአገራችንን ህዝብ በባርነት ለመግዛት አድርጋው ከነበረው ቅስም ሰባሪ እርምጃዎች በባህሪም ሆነ በአይነት አንድ መሆኑ ግልጽ ነው:: ለመብቱና ለነጻነቱ ቀናዕ የሆነው የኢትዮጵያ ህዝብ ግን ትናንት ለጣሊያን መደለያዎች ተታሎ ወይም የሃይል እርምጃ ተንበርክኮ ነጻነቱን አስነጥቆ ለመኖር እንዳልፈቀደ ሁሉ ዛሬም ከአገሩ የሰሜን ክፍል የበቀሉ ባንዳዎች በጉልበታቸውም ሆነ ሌሎች መሸንገያዎች የሚያደርጉትን አሜን ብሎ እስከወዲያኛው ለመገዛት ፈቃደኛ አለመሆኑን በሚያደርገው ተቃውሞ እየገለጸ ነው::
ይህንን ሃቅ የተረዳው ወያኔ የጭቆና ክንዱን ለማፈርጠም የሚያስፈልገውን ገንዘብ በስደት ውጭ አገር ከሚኖረው ኢትዮጵያዊ ለመሰብሰብና የተቃውሞ እንቅስቃሴውን ለማዳከም በኮንዶሚኒየም ቤት ሽያጭ ሥም አዲስ እቅድና ስልት ነድፍ መንቀሳቀስ ጀምሮአል::
ብቸኛው የፓርላማ ተወካይ የሆኑት አቶ ግርማ ሠፉ በቅርቡ ከኢሳት ሬዲዮ ጋር ባደረጉት ቃለመጠይቅ እንዳረጋገጡት ወያኔ በስደት ለሚኖረው ኢትዮጵያዊ የነደፈው የኮንዶሚኒየም ቤት ሺያጭ ዋና አላማ አገር ቤት ውስጥ እየተፏፏመ የመጣውን ህዝባዊ ተቃውሞ ለመምታት በተለያዩ የምዕራብ አገሮች ከፍ ብለው እየተደመጡ ያሉትን ድምጾች አሰቀድሞ ለማዳከም በመፈለጉ እንደሆነ አያጠራጥርም::
ምንም እንኳን ለራሳቸው ማንነትና ስብእና ክብር የሌላቸው አንዳንድ ዜጎች “የአባትህ ቤት ሲዘረፍ አብረህ ዝረፍ” በሚል ፈሊጥ በዚህ የወያኔ ወጥመድ ውስጥ ለመውደቅ ውር ውር እያሉና በየአገሩ የሚገኘውን የወያኔ ኤምባሲ በር ማንኳኳት የጀመሩ መኖራቸው ባይካድም አንድ ወቅት ላይ ግር ግር ፈጥሮ ወዲያው እንደተጨናገፈው የአባይ ቦንድ ሺያጭ የታሰበውን ያህል ውጠት እንደማያስገኝ በእርግጠኝነት መናገር ይቻላል::
ግንቦት 7 የፍትህ የነጻነትና የዲሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ በስደት የሚኖረው ሁሉም ኢትዮጵያዊ አገሩንና ወገኖቹን ጠልቶ ሳይሆን የተሰደደው ለዘመናት የዘለቀው ኢፍትሃዊነት የፈጠረው ኋላ ቀርነትና ድህነት አገሩ ላይ ለመኖር ያለውን ምኞትና ተስፋ አጨልሞበት አለያም በፖለቲካ ችግር ምክንያት ህይወቱን ለማቆየት ተገዶ ነው ብሎ ያምናል::
በዚህም የተነሳ ማንኛውም ስደተኛ ስደት የሚያስከትለውን ማህበራዊና ሥነ ልቦናዊ ቀውሶች ተቋቁሞ አንድ ቀን አገሬ ገብቼ ከወገኖቼ ጋር በሠላም እኖርበታለሁ ብሎ ያጠራቀማትን ጥሪት በከፍተኛ ንቅዘትና ሙሰኝነት ወደ መጨረሻው ታሪካዊ ሞቱ እየወረደ ያለውን የወያኔ ሥርዓት ተማምኖ በማውጣት ቦኋላ እንዳይጸጸት ወገናዊ ምክሩን ይለግሳል::
ወያኔ ለዲያስፖራው ያዘጋጀው የኮንዶሚኒዬም ቤቶች ሺያጭ የፖለቲካ ድጋፍ ለማግኘት የታለም የከተማና የገጠር ህዝባችንን የወያኔ ጭሰኛ ያደረገ የአገር ውስጥ ፖሊሲ አካል ነው:: ከ7 አመት በፊት ኮንዶሚኒዬም ቤት ለማግኘት ለተመዘገቡ 800 ሺህ የአዲስ አበባ ከተማ ነዋሪዎች ያልተዳረሰ ቤት እንዴትና በምን ስሌት ነው በሰው አገር ያውም በአንጻራዊ ምቾት ለምንኖር ዜጎች የታሰበልን ብሎ እራስን መጠየቅ ከትዝብትና ከታሪክ ተወቃሽነት የሚያድን ተግባር ነው ::
ሃብት በተትረፈረፈበትና የሚበላ የሚጠጣ ነገር ከሰው ተርፎ ቆሻሻ ገንዳ ውስጥ በሚጣልበት አሜሪካና አውሮጳ ለምንኖር ዜጎች ከሚስኪኑ ህዝባችን ጉሮሮ በተነጥቀ ገንዘብ ቤተመንሥት ውስጥ ተዘጋጅቶ የተላከ ምግብና መጠጥ ለመደለያነት ሲያጓጉዝ የኖረ መንግሥት አሁን ደግሞ በኮንዶሚኒየም ቤት ሥም ቢመጣብን ጥፋቱ የሱ ሳይሆን የእኛ ለክብራችንና ለነጻነታችን ዋጋ የማንሰጥ ስግብግቦች መሆኑን ምን ጊዜም መዘንጋት የለበትም::
ግንቦት 7 የፍትህ የነጻነትና የዲሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ በስደት ውጭ አገር የሚኖር ማንኛውም አገር ወዳድ ኢትዮጵያዊ ወያኔ በኮንዶሚኒዬም ቤት ሽያጭ ሥም ትግሉን ለማዳከም የዘረጋውን ይህንን የተንኮል ሴራ እንዲያከሽፍ ወገናዊ ሃላፊነት እንዳለበት ያስገነዝባል::
ድል ለኢትዮጵያ ህዝብ !

Aid agencies accused of ignoring rights abuses in Ethiopia

Samuel Loewenberg

Several major aid agencies have been blamed for not addressing rights violations in Ethiopia, including those linked to their programmes in the country. Samuel Loewenberg reports.

The World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) have consistently failed to act on allegations of human rights abuses in Ethiopia, including ones that are tied to their aid programmes, according to new reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Oakland Institute, a California-based think tank.

The Ethiopia case is a microcosm of the issues regularly faced by wealthy western governments and international aid organisations attempting to provide health and other types of foreign assistance to governments with questionable records on issues like human rights, corruption, and governance. Ethiopia is one of the biggest recipients of foreign aid money, according to the Oakland Institute, receiving an average of US$3·5 billion a year from donors, which accounts for more than half of its national budget.

Ethiopia is often held up as an example of the success of foreign aid and global health programmes. The number of people requiring emergency food assistance, for example, has dropped from 15 million in 2003 to 5·6 million in 2012, according to USAID.

Full-size image (65K) Bloomberg via Getty Images

Food aid being delivered in Ethiopia from USAID, a major donor to the country

The reports raise troubling questions over alleged abuses—including beatings, rape, and murder—connected to the government's villagisation programme, described as being the forcible relocation of 1·5 million people to new villages where they are promised access to health services and infrastructure. Instead, the villagers find that they have been moved to arid areas without the promised services. Although the aid agencies do not directly support the villagisation programme, the billions of dollars they provide in development aid can be used by the government in myriad ways: money is fungible. The reports conclude that the aid agencies need to take responsibility for the effect their development money is having in Ethiopia. They also bring into question the accuracy of the country's health data and the issue of at what cost claimed successes are being achieved.

An HRW report on the programme from last year found that Ethiopian “state security forces [were] repeatedly threatening, assaulting, and arbitrarily arresting villagers who resist transfer”. The group claims to have found at least seven incidences when people died as a result of their beatings by government forces.

The Ethiopian Government has firmly denied all the allegations, describing them as politically motivated. DFID, the World Bank, and USAID say they have examined the allegations but have not found sufficient evidence of abuses or forced relocation.

According to the latest HRW report, however, “The Bank failed to appropriately monitor human rights risks related to the program, or to meaningfully respond to the concerns about such violations when they were identified by third parties”. The organisation urged Bank officials to explicitly make human rights part of its mandate and to develop standardised procedures for making sure its programmes do not directly or indirectly support such abuses.

The report by the Oakland Institute documents how officials from USAID and DFID, who were investigating claims of abuse, heard first-hand accounts from villagers recounting brutal treatment by Ethiopian authorities under the villagisation programme. But even after these reports the two agencies failed to act.

The Oakland Institute report's author, Will Hurd, worked as a translator for the assessment team interviewing villagers in the Lower Omo Valley, and includes transcripts of the agencies' interviews. One exchange, regarding the alleged appropriation of tribal land by the Ethiopian Government, is revealing: a villager tells the foreign representatives, “the Ethiopian Government comes and takes up all our land and give us violence, and they rape our wives…If they give us violence and we are killed off then the highlanders can take over the land.”

According to the transcript, one of the DFID representatives responded: “we agree that it's unacceptable, beatings and rapes and lack of consultation and proper compensation, to discuss plans, is something we will raise”. However, the representative continued, “we don't want to be here saying, yeah, we can go back and say to them ‘stop your plantations’ and they'll say ‘yes, okay, fine, because you think we should we will’, because that won't happen”.

The USAID representative added: “Yeah, I don't think we should raise expectations that we can do more than what we can.”

All three agencies tell The Lancet that they have not found evidence of abuses or forced relocation connected with their funding. “It is completely wrong to suggest that British development money is used to force people from their homes. Our assistance has helped millions of people in Ethiopia”, says a DFID spokesman. “We condemn all human rights abuses and, where we have evidence, we raise our concerns at the very highest level.”

Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu on hunger strike

Ethiomedia      

Reeyot Alemu

ADDIS ABABA - Reeyot Alemu, Ethiopia's award-winning journalist serving time in Kaliti Prison, has been on a hunger strike since Wednesday, a sister of the political prisoner has confirmed.
Writing on her Facebook wall, Eskedar Alemu said her sister was subjected to psychological terror from the head of the female inmates's section as well as an ex-army colonel, Haymanot Tesfaye, who was thrown into jail on corruption charges. The army colonel was a high-profile TPLF rebel married to Gebrewahed Woldegiorgis, a few months ago deputy head of the corruption-prone Customs and Revenue Authority and TPLF but now behind bars on again corruption charges.
The former army colonel, Haymanot, shares a cell with Reeyot, a winner of the 2013 UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Though an "inmate," the ex-colonel has got a new job in hand, and that is to turn the prison life of Reeyot into one of a hell. The journalist's appeal for a solution to her ordeal has fallen on deaf ears.
The regime has a history of deploying "tormentors" into the cells of "political prisoners and prisoners of conscience" like Reeyot, and the mission of the tormentors is to deprive their victims of any peace of mind to the point of giving up on life.
For instance, an inmate who was described as "insane" was deployed into a cell where Andualem Arage, a prominent oppositin figure sentenced to life, was stying. The "insane" not only tormented Andualem psychologically but kicked the victim in the head repeatedly he was saved from being killed by other daring inmates. The "tormentors" are deployed to "break the will" of prisoners like Reeyot, who have rejected offers to testify against other journalists falsely in exchange for freedom. The 32-year-old courageous Reeyot is best described, courtesy of debirhan blog, by the following lines excerpted from the IWMF Website:

“Reeyot Alemu has been imprisoned in Ethiopia for more than a year, branded as a terrorist. She is one of many journalists who have been arrested, interrogated and threatened in her country. What makes Alemu exceptional are her commitment to work for independent media when the prospect of doing so became increasingly dangerous, her refusal to self-censor in a place where that practice is standard, and her unwillingness to apologize for truth-telling, even though contrition could win her freedom. In jail, Alemu was offered clemency if she agreed to testify against journalist colleagues. She refused and was sent to solitary confinement for 13 days as punishment for her failure to cooperate. She is currently being kept at Kality prison, which is known for its filthy conditions. Recently, she has fallen ill; in April of this year she underwent surgery at nearby hospital to remove a tumor from her breast, after which she was returned to jail with no recovery time.”

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Women of Ethiopia, Unite!
By Ethiopian Recycler

It is dangerous to be an educated and a vocal woman in Ethiopia today. The ruling minority in Ethiopia has succeeded to sidetrack lazy foreign reporters from The Economist, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, etc, by pointing out that 27 percent of seats in parliament are occupied by women and that the Prime Minister’s wife chairs the Social Affairs Standing Committee and runs her husband’s party business conglomerate and is also a champion of women’s rights! As additional evidence, these reporters have been assured of achievements recorded in comparison to the era of the Derg and that, similar to the Derg era, there is in the Prime Minister’s Office a separate department for Women’s Affairs. In reality, however, for every ounce of information provided there is always a ton hid from public scrutiny. And the foreign reporter will not get to the real story until he or she is willing to make every effort to fact-check who the women parliamentarians are, what their level of education is, what their assignments are in parliament, how effective they have been in passing legislation and how the ‘election’ processes by which they gained those seats were conducted and above all, how a no-opposition parliament could legitimately represent the nation or make the benefits of democracy available to everyone.

It is costly to be a woman leader in Ethiopia, unless you are the Prime Minister’s wife. For every woman leader struck down tens of thousands women, men and children will be seriously affected. Strike out a woman leader you instantly remove the glue, if you will, of a household, a community. Just look at the four women leaders above and observe how few are women leaders. Ms. Birtukan and Ms. Mahdere were High Court Judges and leaders of two civic organizations and as such know one or two things about the letter of the law and its interpretation. Prime Minister Meles and his wife have always dreaded to see the Constitution in the hands of educated and independent-minded women. The fears were not unfounded. Judge Birtukan served two jail terms [in solitary confinement for nearly four years] for organizing an opposition party in a man’s world and for refusing to just “take care of her ageing mother and her 6-year daughter Halle” and is now in the US. Judge Mahdere was lucky to escape the clutches of the husband and wife secret service and currently resides somewhere in North America.