From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu Jul 28 2005 - 02:40:23 EDT
NOTE: Ethiopian Review is the most popular website among Ethiopians,
according to Alexa rankings.
Ethiopian Review's "The 2008 Person of the Year"
January 1st, 2009 | Categories: Ethiopia
It's been a long-held tradition of Ethiopian Review to choose "Person of
the Year." The person who is selected by Ethiopian Review's publisher,
in consultation with associates and readers of the journal, is believed
to have contributed the most to the betterment of Ethiopian in the past
12 months.
For the year 2008, Ethiopian Review has selected President Issayas
Afeworki of Eritrea as "Person of the Year."
The choice was an easy one. But it is expected a create a great deal of
controversy because of a relentless propaganda campaign that the
tibalist regime in Ethiopia, the Tigray People Liberation Front
(Woyanne), has been waging to make sure that relations between
Ethiopians and Eritreans will NOT develop and improve. It's the same
tactic that Woyanne uses inside Ethiopia and through out the Hon of
Africa region to turn people against each other.
The Woyanne propaganda has been effective only to a certain extent.
Through an aggressive counter campaign by the media from both the
Ethiopian and the Eritrean sides, such as Ethiopian Review and EriTV, as
well as the Eritrean government's tireless effort, a great deal of
improvements have been made in improving the relationship between the
people of Ethiopia and Eritea. This has been a nightmare for Meles
Zenawi's Woyanne, as well as those tribalists such as the Siye Abraha
group that strive take over after Meles is gone.
The person who is leading and putting the resources of his government
behind the effort to create friendship and lasting peace among not only
Eritreans and Ethiopians, but all people of the Horn of Africa is
Issayas Afeworki.
Under President Issayas' leadership, Eritrea has opened up its doors to
Ethiopians who are fleeing Meles Zenawi's tribalist dictatorship. There
is no country in the world, perhaps with the exception of the U.S.,
where the rights and freedom of Ethiopian refugees have been fully
respected and protected as much as Eritrea.
Freedom fighters such as EPPF, OLF, ONLF, TPDM and others are given
shelters in Eritrea so that their wounded receive treatments and their
leaders hold meetings unmolested by Woyanne agents, thanks to President
Issayas. These freedom fighters are gaining ground every day and will
succeed in removing the Woyanne cancer from the Horn of Africa. Only
then Ethiopia's unity can be saved, and a lasting peace in the Horn of
Africa region will prevail. The humiliating defeat of Woyanne in Somalia
- brilliantly masterminded by Issayas Afeworki - is a major step toward
that goal.
While Woyanne-controlled radio and TV programs transmit daily barrages
of propaganda that promote ethnic division, under the sponsorship of the
Eritrean government, EriTV and Eritrean Radio are aggressively promoting
Ethiopian unity - despite the tens of millions of dollars Woyannes
spends to jam them. Issayas Afeworki has also authorized a publication
named 'One Ethiopia' for the purpose of countering Woyanne's
anti-Ethiopia propaganda.
Why would Issayas Afeworki and his government want to help Ethiopian
freedom fighters to free our country from the Woyanne cancer?
1) Between 1998 and 2000, Meles & gang have carried out a massive ethnic
cleansing campaign against Eritreans. During this campaign, over 500,000
Eritreans, most of whom were born and raised in Ethiopia, had been
stripped of all their properties and expelled from Ethiopia. Their homes
and other properties were distributed among Woyanne officials and
members. Because of forced family separations, it is estimated that
close to 1 million Eritreans are affected by the Woyanne ethnic
cleansing campaign. The ethnic cleansing that Meles & gang had carried
out against Eritreans is a crime against humanity by any standard, which
the United Nations has completely ignored. Getting justice for these
Eritrean victims of ethnic cleansing alone is a good motivation for the
Eritrean government to help Ethiopian freedom fighters eliminate
Woyanne.
2) Eritreans are well aware that the endless ethnic and religious
conflicts that the Woyanne regime is instigating in Ethiopia will
continue to keep them in a perpetual state of war. They have seen it
first hand how monstrous evil Woyannes are. Eritreans have suffered more
during the Woyanne regime than through all the wars during the Derg
regime. Currently, Woyanne has created a transitional Eritrean
government based in Mekelle and is arming and training over 20,000
mercenaries. It is preparing to invade Eritrea and put a puppet regime
in Asmara as it tried to do in Somalia. Getting rid of Woyanne, in
collaboration with Ethiopian freedom fighters, is matter of survival for
Eritreans, not a just a kind favor for Ethiopia.
The reason why Woyannes have turned their backs on Eritreans after the
Eritrean Liberation Front helped them come to power is more
psychological than any thing else. By nature, Woyannes are ravenously
greedy (like hyenas), and more importantly, they suffer from chronic
inferiority complex. That's why they are extremely violent and ready to
flex their muscle over every disagreement.
For Ethiopian freedom fighters to fight and successfully defeat the
Woyanne mafia, cooperation with Eritrea's government is necessary. Those
Ethiopian opposition leaders who have understood this fact have been
doing that for a while now and in the past few months a great deal of
progress has been made.
It is not an easy task to defeat Woyanne. Because unlike in Somalia,
there are too many fake opposition figures in Ethiopia that create
confusion. The only genuine Ethiopian opposition groups at this time are
those that are shooting real bullets at Woyanne.
For those who are able to see through the smoke that Woyanne
propagandists are producing, it is easy to arrive at Ethiopian Review's
conclusion that Issayas Afeworki has contributed the most to the fight
to remove the cancer that is eating away at Ethiopia in the past 12
months. President Issayas has also been able to throw out of whack the
Woyanne master plan of creating 'Greater Tigray' and turning Ethiopia
into 8 small countries with their own puppet regimes serving the 'golden
race.'
The visceral hate toward the publisher of Ethiopian Review by not only
Woyanne, but also those that want to remove Meles but keep Woyanne in
power, is caused by the knowledge that Ethiopian Review is succeeding in
exposing their tribalist agenda. The selection of President Isayas
Afeworki of Eritrea by the #1 Ethiopian media will surely drive them
more insane than they already are.
Let 2009 bring freedom and peace to Ethiopia and all the people of the
Horn of Africa.
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/8056