Declare War on Foreign Land Grabbers!
News Tuesday, January 17th, 2012by Tedla Asfaw
When I read the report by Human Rights Watch, “Waiting Here for Death:Forced Displacement and “‘villagization’ in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region” , Jan.16, 2012 on the First Anniversary of Forced Villagization I could not help myself thinking back the 8th Anniversary of Annuak Massacre in Gambella, Dec. 13 2003. Four hundred twenty Four Annuak, the educated and the young, were gunned down on that day eight years ago. The Killing continued for the following two years and 1500 people were brutally killed by the Ethiopian Regime and its proxies in Gambella. No one was charged for that crime.
It is now abundantly clear that like the forced villagization the aim of that killing eight years ago was to silence the voice of the Gambella people to sell or lease land for foreign land grabbers led by Karuturi and Saudi Star which have now acquired Land Cleansed by the Ethiopian regime. Out of the 1,800,000 ha in the Gambella region the major land lords Karuturi an Indian Company, Saudi Star of Saudi Arabia got for now 500,000 and 200,000 ha respectively.
Foreigners especially Westerners are not directly buying or leasing land but are helping the regime by indirect funding its program. The forced villagization budget is indirectly funded by the West and they have also been feeding Ethiopia for the last two decades. They never question or try to ignore a country that is selling its land for foreigners to produce crops to feed other people, Arabs and Indians. China and India empowered their small farmers to feed their people never gave a hectare for foreign farmers to produce crop for them or feed others.
The Ethiopian regime has benefited from Western financial support of more than 30 billion and billions of dollars from foreign exchange by selling more than 3 million hectare as of now. No surprise the illicit money coming out of Ethiopia to foreign banks has increased a lot reaching now as reported 11.5 billion dollar in the last two decade thanks partly to the land sell/lease which is moving at light speed since 2008. Where is the outrage in the West ?
The Human Rights Watch Report is very embarrassing to the West especially USA and UK. The Ethiopian regime as usual will show us a “documentary” how the life of the people of Gambella has improved in the first year of “Voluntary Villagization”. Both will not help the people of Gambella and it is unfortunate to say but No One Cares.
This is a problem that has to be solved by United Action of Ethiopians. As I suggested a day ago for fellow Ethiopians about 300 of them in our chatting room we have to Act. Ethiopians all over the Diaspora should rally one day under the banner, “Ethiopia’s Land and Water for Ethiopians Only”. All foreign land grabbers should be warned to leave our land immediately or else face the consequence. We are just doing what the people of Madagascar did in 2008 and succeeded with no one help. They revolt and chase away the land buyer and seller, South Korea and the regime respectively. We should follow their example.
The hungry, displaced voice of the Gambella people whose voice is ignored by the World community will reverberate all over the world where Ethiopians reside. The India and Saudi Embassy whose companies are responsible for the hunger and death of fellow Ethiopians in Gambella should be the primary target of our Action for now.
Ethiopians back home should warn these two embassies to get out of Ethiopian land in Gambella, Beni Shanguel, Amhara Region immediately. We want to tell them that they will not harvest any crop from our land. Even if this warning is for the biggest land lords others who are from more than 36 foreign countries on Land Grab Business in Afar, Oromia Somali and Southern Region should get a necessary lesson from our Action that targeted Karuturi and Saudi Star. Leave Ethiopian Land and Water immediately.
The Blood Harvest will be stopped and no one is able to protect these foreign land grabbers. Our Brigade To Take Back Ethiopian Land from foreign land grabbers will mobilize the Diaspora for this honorable cause. We are also calling for the world community to stand with our cause and denounce all who are behind the land grab in Ethiopia. We have to ashamed the hedge funds of prestigious universities in America who are investing on Ethiopian land for 25 percent profit. That is a Blood Profit and we will tell all who are coming to these universities to stand with our cause.
Ethiopians about 15 million of them have been on food assistance from the West for the last two decades while foreign land grabbers took their fertile land to produce crop to feed their own people. We will not allow that no matter what.
The war to liberate our farm land from foreign land grabbers has already started. This is our Holy War worth dying for it. We demand from the West not to take side on this war by arming the Ethiopian regime in the name of War on Terror. Our War is War on Land Grabbers. As we know the West has not grabbed any land from Ethiopia there is no need to fight others people war directly or indirectly.
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I believe that our land should be ours, and we, the people, should give the ultimate consent to share our land for any foreign people, but not on sale by the gangster governments. That is all, African land should deserve for Africans first, but not for other people who have conspired with the tyrant governments. Period!
Ii believe that our land should be ours, and we, the people, should give the ultimate consent to share our land for any foreign people, but not on sale by the gangster governments. That is all, African land should deserve for Africans first, but not for other people who have conspired with the tyrant governments. Period!
Those of you who knows how to write in good English and educated should write in these two days an oped on NY Times demanding form the US to stop supporting land grab and so forth in country like Ethiopia. Human right watch has done the job for us; all what is required from us is to do a good exc. summary of the report, focusing on the part where the DAG is implicated. Demand the World Bank to publish the report of its study in Benshanguel gumuz. We also know the land grab is also financed in part by the IFI
I beg you; please Prof al maria, Prof messay or Tecola Hagos or Ato Teshome Debalke, Ato Kefyallew or anyone who can do it, please write a short, substantive short oped. I wish I were as I educated as you do or as good as you in English. Whether you do it by yourself or in group, write it and send it to NY Times, let them say no but try it. If you do so, make sure to co-author it with the arbenagew Obang. As for the campaign, please let us do it. For tactical purpose, let us focus on this at least for two weeks on foreign investors. We can also send the same article to project syndicate get it published in Hindu, chinaise, in Arabic. The Chinese muzzeles our mouth, the Inidan and the Saudis are taking our land. The US builds the repression muscle of the minority regime. The world banks PBS is used to lubricate the repression machine of TPLF. They should be told that we are taking note of that.