War on Terror? US proxies Ethiopia and Rwanda terrorize their own people
http://ethioforum.org/war-on-terror-us-proxies-ethiopia-and-rwanda-terrorize-their-own-people/
Washington D.C.-based Ethiopian activist Obang Metho says that Ethiopian
and Rwandan dictators have been allowed to terrorize their own people
because they provide troops for the U.S. War on Terror. Metho is a founder
of the Soldarity Movement for a New Ethiopia.
[image: The Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia puts humanity before
ethnicity and says that no Ethiopians will be free until all are free.]
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http://sfbayview.com/2015/08/war-on-terror-us-proxies-ethiopia-and-rwanda-terrorize-their-own-people/solidarity-movement-for-a-new-ethiopia-humanity-before-ethnicity-people-montage/>
*KPFA Weekend News Anchor Sharon Sobotta*: Two hundred delegates from
African governments and institutions met in Kigali, Rwanda, yesterday for a
symposium on “democratization and development.” The symposium was organized
by the Meles Zenawi Foundation and the African Development Bank.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s successor, Hailemariam Desalegn,
joined Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali, where both spoke of the
primacy of state power and African agency in development. Washington
D.C.-based Ethiopian activist Obang Metho spoke to KPFA’s Ann Garrison
about what was wrong with this picture.
*Obang Metho*: Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. The
whole picture is wrong. The whole picture is wrong being that Paul Kagame
and then the former prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, these two
gentlemen – we cannot talk about them and say that they can bring any new
things to Africa.
Why? Because these are two men who came to power, not by the ballot, by the
bullet. And if you look at it, these are people also who’ve been in power
for long. Meles, he died in power. So the whole thing is wrong with the
picture.
These are two men who came to power, not by the ballot, by the bullet.
Like they were talking about development democracy. Where is the democracy?
Ethiopia is a country that, in just the election they had in May this year,
the government won by 100 percent.
*KPFA/Ann Garrison*: I remember that. They won every single seat in
Parliament. Now, are you saying that both these governments are minority
dictatorships: Rwanda, dictatorship by the 14 percent Tutsi minority and
Ethiopian dictatorship by the 6 percent Tigrean minority?
*OM*: Yes, yes, in Ethiopia the 6 percent is the Tigrean ethnic group.
*KPFA*: It seems that the United States military partnerships with Rwanda
and Ethiopia, based on Rwanda and Ethiopia’s willingness to cooperate with
American forces, insulates both regimes against criticism from the West.
[image: Obang Metho, center, testifies at the U.S. House Foreign Relations
Subcommittee hearing – Ethiopia After Meles: The Future of Democracy and
Human Rights – on June 20, 2013.]
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http://sfbayview.com/2015/08/war-on-terror-us-proxies-ethiopia-and-rwanda-terrorize-their-own-people/obang-metho-testifies-us-house-foreign-relations-subcmte-ethiopia-after-meles-062013/>
*OM*: Correct. Correct. Yeah, because if you look at it now, Obama went to
Ethiopia last month. When he was in Ethiopia, the speech he gave was that
Ethiopia had the top soldiers. He went there for a specific reason. He said
Ehtiopia had the top soldiers.
So, in other words, instead of sending the Marines over to die in Somalie
to fight Al-Shabab or to fight these which they call the terrorists,
actually they send the Ethiopians there, pretty much like a contract. So,
in the name of security, the Ethiopians work for the West for what they
call War on Terror, but these people are actually known for terrorizing
their own peoples.
So for that, the Ethiopian government, the ruling ethnic apartheid regime
in Ethiopia that terrorizes their own people, they are not being criticized
because they are the darling of the West. They’re pretty much that from
Bush till Obama. Anything that the West will ask of them, they will do that.
In the name of security, the Ethiopians work for the West for what they
call War on Terror, but these people are actually known for terrorizing
their own peoples.
And the hypocrisy, what Obama did when he went there! He called the
Ethiopian government a democratically elected government. There’s no way –
100 percent – you know a group can’t win an election by 100 percent.
There’s no way they can be democratic.
And then Obama called Burundi, the election there, illegitimate or not
credible. Which one is that? The one that claims to win by 67 percent, or
the one that claims to win 100 percent?
So my point is the Ethiopians, because of the so-called War on Terror, the
regime has not been criticized in the West, not even by the media.
But in the long run, this thing will explode. So this kind of thing, where
you side with a dictator and exclude the people, that will sooner or later
haunt. If violence erupts in Ethiopia, and Ethiopians kill each other, that
will be the legacy of Obama. There’s no doubt about it, because he’s the
one who has supported this group that has isolated itself from Ethiopians.
So this kind of thing, where you side with a dictator and exclude the
people, that will sooner or later haunt.
*KPFA*: That was Washington D.C.-based Ethiopian activist Obang Metho.
For Pacifica <
http://pacifica.org/>, KPFA <
https://kpfa.org/> and
AfrobeatRadio, I’m Ann Garrison.
*Oakland writer Ann Garrison writes for the **San Francisco Bay View*
<
http://sfbayview.com/tag/ann-garrison/>*, Black Agenda Report, Black Star
News,**Counterpunch*
<
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/20/the-israelrwanda-pact/>* and her
own website, **Ann Garrison* <
http://www.anngarrison.com/>*, and produces
for **AfrobeatRadio* <
http://afrobeatradio.net/>* on WBAI-NYC, **KPFA
Evening News* <
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/show/99>*, **KPFA Flashpoints*
<
http://www.kpfa.org/flashpoints>* and for her own YouTube Channel, *
*AnnieGetYourGang* <
http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnieGetYourGang>*. She can
be reached at **anniegarrison_at_gmail.com* <anniegarrison_at_gmail.com>*. In
March 2014 she was awarded the **Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and
Peace Prize* <
http://www.rifdp-iwndp.org/>* for promoting peace in the
Great Lakes Region of Africa through her reporting.*
Received on Wed Sep 09 2015 - 14:37:59 EDT