Blood Diplomacy, Killing and abduction in Ethiopia

Posted by ecadforum Ethiopian News, News Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

by Tedla Asfaw

I hear the sad news of the death of five tourists early Monday Ethiopian time in the Afar region of Ethiopia. As a person who worked in that part of Ethiopia in the 1980s and knowing the people and geography very well I cannot be silent on the loss of innocent lives. Two Germans are dead and two abducted, Two Hungarians are dead and so did one Austrian. Two Ethiopians were abducted. Two Belgians injured and one foreigner escaped.

Foreigners are highly respected in Ethiopian culture and such incidences are extremely rare. The Afar people are very proud of people and in no way they will attack foreigners. Since 1991 when Eritrea and Ethiopia were ruled by tyrant Isaias Afeworki and Meles Zenawi the two regimes have declared war on the Afar people and many Afars lost their lives.

The Eritrean and Ethiopian regime targeted Afar because this proud people do not allow their land to be overrun by those who have no respect for Afar people. Afar was autonomous during Imperial Ethiopia. The late Sultan Ali Mirah after he went into exile in 1974 after the fall of Haile Selassie Afar was left without a leader.

After the fall of Mengistu in 1991 the armed rulers of Eritrea and Ethiopia gang up together to wipe out the Afar to control the resources. Afar never accepted their territory Assab to fall under Isaias’ Eritrea. Afar boycotted Eritrean referendum. Since that time there has never been peace. Once a Badme war broke out in 2008 the Afar people were used by both Eritrea and Ethiopia as each other proxies.

Both Isaias and Meles are playing their game by using the proud people of Afar. The spokesman of Ethiopia, Bereket Simon did not waste tome to accuse Asmara for the killing and abduction of foreigners. Surprised he did not accuse opposition movements like Ginbot 7. The killing of these foreign tourists is political to divert the attention from the Human Rights Watch Report out Jan. 16, 2012 on the people of Gambella who are forced to leave their land for foreign land lords connected with the unelected unaccountable regime of Ethiopia.

Before the release of this report the Ethiopian regime delegates including the USA Ambassador to Ethiopia were in Gambella. In Gambella in Dec. 2003 the Annuak were massacred to clear the land for foreign land grabbers. The West never held accountable the Ethiopian regime for this crime and has been dancing with Meles Zenawi as an ally and man of stability while only denouncing Isaias for his human right violation.

No wonder the BBC reporter expressed the fear of the West that Ethiopia and Eritrea will go to war following the killing of foreign tourists. The West has been fooled by Meles Zenawi for the last two decades and it is time to wake up and correct the failed policy of siding with Meles and attack Isaias.

Both are unelected thugs who care less for the loss of lives. That is what they did in Badme war where more than 80,000 were killed. The loss of five foreigner’s life is nothing for both of them. The regime in Asmara and Addis has to go if we want peace in that part of Africa. Until then they will play on human lives to hold on power.

As an Ethiopian and a person who knows the Afar people very well we all condemn the crime committed in our name. The taking of innocent especially guests lives is not Ethiopian. Responsibility is squarely on the Ethiopian regime.

I am sending my condolence to the families who lost loved ones. I am also praying for the abducted Belgians and Ethiopians to come home safely. I can assure you that the killers are not unknown to the Ethiopian regime. The people of Ethiopia and Eritrea have to condemn such senseless killing. We have to rise up and establish an accountable regime both in Ethiopia and Eritrea that do not play with human lives to get foreign political and financial support. This is Blood Diplomacy I condemn very much.