By Amanuel Biedemariam At this stage there is a clear consensus amongst the people of the Horn of Africa that peace must prevail in the region. Peace must prevail to revive the cultures, way of life and traditional values of the region. There is a consensus that if the effort for peace fails, the region will be hell on earth. Absent of peace, the people of the region will suffer for generations. The region will be fragmented broken to pieces without any hope of an organized future that can offer any semblance of hope for the people. Our children may not get the best education money can buy because educational infrastructures may not be developed. Perpetual cycle of poverty will pervade subjecting successive generations to starvation and raising malnourished desperate kids that will know nothing else but guns.
There is a consensus the minority mercenary regime of Meles Zenawi is the only hurdle to peace in the region. In order to maintain a firm grip of power, Meles Zenawi is using destructive, inhumane and divisive strategies that will have far reaching consequences for generations to come. It is not hyperbole to state Meles Zenawi is the most dangerous leader the Horn of Africa has ever-seen. Meles Zenawi is dangerous because he is not accountable to the people of Ethiopia. He betrayed the people and leadership of Eritrea. He is responsible for untold bloodshed and destruction that is taking place in Somalia. In the name of peace-keeping, Meles Zenawi is also directly involved in the conflict in Sudan; and not for the interest of Ethiopia! There is also a consensus in Ethiopian circles that the ethnic division he created can engulf the nation into unmanageable ethnic strife. In addition, his reckless policies in the Ogaden and the religious implication that it has for future stability of the region is downright scary. Not to mention the fact that he invaded Somalia, an Islamic country, while selling Ethiopia as a Christian nation thus becoming the main reason behind the rise of religious extremism and setting a dangerous precedent. There is a consensus amongst Ethiopians that they do not want to be a party to this craziness.
There is a consensus that Meles Zenawi will use any and all measures at his disposal to achieve his self-serving goal. He will resort to violence, intimidation, trickery and leverage of all the powers at his disposal. He will sacrifice all including his mother. There is nothing he will not do to remain in power. He will lie, cheat, kill, buy and sell any one or any thing.
There is a consensus that the minority regime of Meles Zenawi is not trustworthy, and that one can not work with the TPLF gang with any kind of trust. There is consensus there is no principle that governs this gang. The only thing that interests the gang is its power and money.
The Good News
In a fundraising event Dr. Haile Mezghebe made remarkable statement that all Africans need to remember. He said, paraphrasing;
{I went to school and I was exposed to a unique approach of dealing with issues. I learned from my teachers that if there are ten issues on the table and they disagreed on all but one, they started to work with one issue that they agree-on and work towards the others. But to the contrary; most Africans do it the opposite. If they agree on all nine issues and disagree on one, that one issue destroys all hopes of working towards resolving the other nine issues.}
The one thing that the overwhelming majority of the people from the Horn o Africa agree is Meles Zenawi and his cronies must have gone. “Yesterday”! To that end, Eritreans and Ethiopians are working together. In a sense, the UNjust Sanction measure imposed on Eritrea is a blessing in disguise because it gave the friends of Eritrea to say this is a good place to start a lasting relationship, friendship and working relationship. By marching with Eritreans they want to set a precedent for generations, to show them ways in which they can cooperate. To use it as a platform for future cooperation as we work to address in a collective manner on the issues. To establish forums in order to educate the public; to exchange ideas, and to mobilize so as to own one-voice our-voices as we address US Congress and to fight the voices of the hired lobbyists to politically eliminate Weyane. This will give the people in the region hope and, it possibly could inspire them.
The only way to defeat Meles Zenawi and his Weyane gang is with waging peace and harmony amongst the people of the Horn. The interest of Weyane is only served by hegemony, war and strife. That is what he gets paid to do and does it well because a United Ethiopia, United Somalia and United Eritrea are threats to their power. The minority clique needs to divide people along ethnic, regional and religious lines to survive. That unfortunately is detrimental to the future of the people in the region.
This is what we all need to know if we want to see this despotic Hitlersque characters and his likes gone. We need to start fresh for the sake of peace, understanding and better future of the region. That is why we need to let the leaders of our communities know that they need to show solidarity and urge them to stand alongside all the people in the region when they stand for justice and against injustices. To show they are willing to get out of their comfort zone and take a risk for unity, justice and peace. Conversely, the community, civic and other concerned leaders need to assure their people it is time to work for peace because peace is the worst enemy of Weyane.
Therefore, I take this opportunity to thank those who worked tirelessly, like community organizer extraordinaire Ato. Neamin Zeleke, that encouraged their constituency to use the upcoming march in DC and around the world as a staging ground towards a great working relation and friendship with Eritreans. It is great that many websites advertised the march on their websites.
That is a sign of a new day, a great future and most importantly it will give Weyane a headache. It should also be a sign that united we will regain the respect that we lost. Meaning, we will honor agreements, stop the election charades that convicts to death in absentia and bring sanity back to the region.
Awetnayu@hotmail.com