Lies and Liars: Ethiopia’s despotic leaders

by Najib Mohammed

In the West, we are accustomed to hearing politicians lie to serve their interest and fulfill their ego. For example, when two politicians are running for an office and one tells the truth and the other lies by saying  what the public wants to hear, the one who says what the public wants to hear wins the election. Therefore, it is expected that if one wants to win an election, one better lie, because the guy who’s telling the truth doesn’t have a chance of winning. Yes, there are extreme cases when leaders in the West lie and mislead their people in order to send their army to execute wars outside their borders for which they usually get exposed and pay dearly with their reputation and honor. However, they would never lie to declare war or to incite violence between the different religious or ethnic segment of their population as it is the case in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s despotic leaders do not need to lie to win elections. They steal elections. In fact, the election they hold is but to lie and mislead the international public opinion. They believe that since they came to power through the barrel of the gun they must stay in power by the same gun. They lie when they want to cover-up murders or plan to murder their own people. They always plot and plan to create instability to stay in power. They tightly control every faucets of their people’s life including their religious practices. Divide and rule is the easiest and obvious method they deploy to stay in power.  Time and again we have witnessed the Ethiopia government use ethnicity to incite interethnic conflicts to dislocate Ethiopian from one region or another. Now, Ethiopians of different ethnic groups have rejected to play the ethnic card, the government is resorting to the most heinous and dangerous card of religion.
Though for the last two years the official government media was waging the propaganda war against the Muslim population to create fear and apprehension among the Christians and did not succeed, the threat and the fear mongering has become the duty of the higher office holder in the country.
Right after the crackdown on peaceful Ethiopian Muslims who were out celebrating the end of Ramadan, and before the blood of those who were massacred by the government forces at Kofele, Oromia dries, the prime minister of Ethiopia, Ato Haile Mariam, gave an interview blaming the innocent victims of the brutal unprovoked crackdown of being terrorist who are bent in destabilizing the country.  Thank God for social media. The world witnessed the innocent victims whom the Prime Minister called terrorists. Women, men, the young and the elderly even pregnant women who were out celebrating fell victims of the crackdown. In fact, he threatened to take harsher measures to kill, maim, and incarcerate more innocent people who dare to demand their constitutional rights.  Amnesty International reported the crackdown the same day urging the Ethiopian Government to respect the human right of the people.
One would think that when the leader of a country appears on national TV on a holiday, it is either to congratulate the country on the happy occasion or to inform the people of an emergency. Both situations were present for Prime Minister Hailemariam. The occasion of Eid AlFitr holiday and the massacre that took place in Kofele, Oromia and Addis Ababa and the rest of the country right after the Eid prayers. These occasions would have warranted the Prime Minister to congratulate the people on Eid and express his sincere apology for the atrocities committed by his security forces. Instead, the Prime Minister went on TV and with straight face lied to the public and shamefully blamed the innocent men and women, young and old victims of the brutal crackdown.
Once, I read an article about the prime minister of Ethiopia, Ato Hailemariam that he is a religious person who wakes up early in the morning and spends at least 30 minutes praying to God before going to his office. Is it perhaps he gets up early to get 30 minutes instruction of how to mislead his people?  I wonder how he will answer the God he is praying to when He asks him about the outright lies he uttered about Ethiopian Muslims and why as a leader he approves the killing and maiming of the innocent. As I was listening to the Prime

Azeb Mesfin lost TPLF’s cash cow

by Abebe Gellaw

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has quietly removed the late dictator’s widow Azeb Mesfin from the helm of EFFORT as Chief Executive Officer a few months after her husband’s demise, it emerged.
Azeb, widely known as the ‘Queen of Mega’ and ‘mother of corruption’ among Ethiopians, had snatched  the reins of  power within the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) from her bitter rival Sibehat Nega and Abadi Zemo. She was once the de facto second in command in her husband’s tyrannical regime.
The new boss appointed to as the Chief Executive Office (CEO) of TPLF’s multi-billion dollars business empire and corruption cash cow emerged to be Berhane Kidane Mariam Yihdego, a Central Committee member of the TPLF. According to informed sources, Berhane is a close confidant and business partner of Sebhat Nega, a multi-millionaire in his own right like most members of the TPLF ruling class.
Berhane, who enjoys multiple high profile positions as a privileged TPLF loyalist, was the former General Manager of TPLF’s propaganda mouthpiece Walta Information Center from 2006 up to last year. Besides being the President of the nepotistic and corruption-plagued Ethiopian Olympics Committee (EOC), he sits on the boards of Wegagen Bank, which is also owned by the TPLF, and Mekele University. The new EFFORT chief also claims to be the founder and Deputy Board Chairman of a private company called “Ethiopian Quality Award Organization,” according to his CV obtained by Addis Voice.
TPLF’s move to replace Azeb with the new loyalist was confirmed by Berhane himself who recently sent an updated CV and a profile to the Switzerland-based Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), where he represents Ethiopia as EOC president. In his profile posted on ANOC’s website, he listed his current professional position as “Board of Director and Chief Executive Officer of EFFORT Investment Group” since 2012. In spite of the fact that the exact month of his appointment was not mentioned nor made official, the ANOC website indicates that Berhane’s latest profile was updated on May 2, 2013. The French and Spanish versions of his profile web pages also carry exactly the same information.
Walta reported recently that Berhane Kidanemariam, the new “Director of EFFORT and TPLF CC member conducted a successful meeting with the Diaspora in Seattle.” The meeting, hosted by the Union of Tigrians in North America (UTNA), focused on how EFFORT is implementing its objective of developing Tigray and making it self-reliant, it stated.
Heaping praise on its former boss, Walta promoted the corrupt conglomerate’s new chief as eloquent, persuasive and visionary. “Berhane Kidane Mariam, with his eloquent and persuasive ability, spelled out the objective of his presence in Seattle and explained the development in Tigrai and the role of EFFORT to uplift the hope and aspiration of many Tigrians from poverty to self-reliance,” Walta declared.