WASHINGTON, 10 December 2009 — Advocacy for Ethiopia, an Ethiopian civic group based in the U.S., held a press conference Sunday to air its views on the Copenhagen Climate Conference in Denmark that has started today.
The group’s main message was: “The importance of Human rights, good governance, and poverty reductionfor a sustainable protection of our planet”
The panel of experts who participated in the press conference include Dr Seid Hassan, Dr Robsan Itana, Dr Minga Negash, Wz. Meron Ahahu, Ato Neamin Zelleke, Wz. Wassi Tesfa, and Dr Gezahegn Bekele.
The panelists explained, among other things, that Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi has no mandate to represent Ethiopia and Africa at the conference. A letter sent to all participants of the conference states:
“… we are disappointed that the African Union has selected and the Climate Summit has given an opportunity to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia to represent the African continent. We believe that Meles Zenawi is the wrong person to represent Africa, since his policies are the causes and drivers for the incalculable environmental degradations currently taking place in Ethiopia.”
Advocacy Ethiopia has released the following statement, which is signed by 21 Ethiopian political and civic groups:
No Blank Checks for African Despots at Copenhagen Climate Conference
From December 6 to 18, 2009, leaders and representatives of nations around the world, international organizations, and prominent individuals will convene in Copenhagen, Denmark at the much anticipated Summit on Climate Change. We look forward to a positive outcome of this gathering and are hopeful that the conference achieves its objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to avert the colossal implications of climate change globally. We also recognize that those who would be most affected by ongoing damaging climate change are the people of developing nations, particularly those living in the continent of Africa.
Nevertheless, we are disappointed that the African Union has selected and the Climate Summit has given an opportunity to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia to represent the African continent. We believe that Meles Zenawi is the wrong person to represent Africa, since his policies are the causes and drivers for the incalculable environmental degradations currently taking place in Ethiopia.
Under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s regime, Ethiopia is facing an ecological catastrophe: deforestation, recurrent drought, and desertification. Water pollution, air pollution, soil erosion are becoming alarmingly high due to Zenawi’s regime lacks both sustainable development plans and non-transboundary environmental policies. It is due to this fact that UNDP and other environmental organizations have been reporting about the alarming state of the ecological degradation in Ethiopia. Mr. Meles Zenawi’s colossal failures in environmental policies are highlighted by his regime’s land tenure policy and his relentless suppression of civil and economic rights. Millions of Ethiopians are exposed to periodic hunger and famine in part due to his regime’s land tenure policy. After almost two decades of Zenawi’s rule, in 2009 over ten million Ethiopians are exposed to hunger and malunitrition.
As is customary, Meles Zenawi’s regime has signed numerous international and environmental treaties that it never implements. To add insult to injury, Mr. Meles Zenawi even chairs Ethiopia’s Environmental Council. It is partly due to his control that the existing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks the political clout to discharge and enforce the duties and responsibilities vested in it. To those who pay attention to what is going on in Ethiopia, the story of the EPA’s feebleness is a direct byproduct of profuse lip service given by the regime of Zenawi about its concern for the environment– as is the case about good governance, democracy, human rights, etc,. In addition, Mr. Zenawi’s hostile attitude towards Environmental NGOs – and civil society organizations, in general, has created enormous hurdles for those who want to mitigate the colossal environmental crisis facing Ethiopia.
According to the government’s own Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia has been losing up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year. In a very recent statement, the head of the same Institute, stated: “deforestation has continued at an alarming rate in several parts of Ethiopia as a result of illegal logging, deforestation and other human induced activities”. Forty percent of the land covered by forest by the turn of the 20th century had gone down to 5.5% in 1987 and only 0.2% in 2003. If the current trend continues, Ethiopian forest covers would be extinct along with the loss of the country’s uniquely rich wildlife, fauna, flora, and a broad and general loss of its biological diversity.
The governance problem is one of the main causes of the environmental distress taking place in Ethiopia Soil erosion, which is linked with deforestation and Meles Zenawi’s land tenure system, continues to contribute to the drying up of the country’s lakes. Major Ethiopian Lakes such as Haro Maya (Alemaya), Adele, Awasa, and others have dried out totally. Acute shortages of water afflict major towns such as the city of Harrar and the capital city, Addis Ababa. As a result of the shortage of water resources, thousands of Ethiopians are affected by water born diseases.
The use of pesticides, untested and unfitting fertilizers, other toxic chemicals, some of them long abandoned by the industrialized countries, are now common in Ethiopia. The excess chemicals that are being washed off from the farms to rivers, streams, and lakes, are causing a plethora of problems including the poisoning of inhabitants, increasing algae blooms, and excessive plant growth leading to eutrophication, thereby making the water bodies and vegetation harmful to humans, wild and aquatic life and polluting the underground water. The level of environmental destruction caused by the chemicals used by foreign and party owned commercial flower farms and the leather industry is among the worst in the world. The environmental destruction and its hazardous impacts on human life and other inhabitants at and around Lake Koka, for instance, are captured by a few investigative reports and were televised recently by the members of the International media such as the Al-Jazeera Television Network and detailed by an eminent British Scientist.
Vehicular emissions in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, are alarmingly high. The presence of lead and sulfur in imported fuels, despite a ban since 2002, and the absence of emission inspection clearly indicate that the laws Zenawi passes only give lip service to clear and present dangers to the lives of Ethiopians.
Ethiopia’s government human right abuses and suppression of press freedom are well-documented, by Human Rights Watch; The US State Department Annual Report on Human Rights, Amnesty International, the New York based Center to Protect Journalist (CPJ), Journalists without Borders, and many other creditable international and regional human rights and press freedom organizations. The organization–Genocide Watch– has called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to initiate an investigation against the atrocities committed by the government of Meles Zenawi. Wide spread corruption also adds to the malaise of ordinary Ethiopians. Transparency International’s most recent report has ranked Ethiopia as 126th most corrupt country in the world.
Periodic ethnic conflicts in the country are destroying and weakening the institutions and these in turn are prohibiting the citizens and the NGOs to make informed decisions about the environment. The governance problem is one of the main causes of the environmental distress taking place in Ethiopia.
We believe that in an age of Globalization humanity’s interest, wellbeing, and destiny are directly intertwined. In view of this, we urge you to take tangible steps that include the following concerns of ours:
- Mr. Meles Zenawi must be held accountable to the massive environmental degradtion in Ethiopia. We urge you not to ignore the environmental damages that the Zenawi’s regime has committed inside Ethiopia. For doing so sends a very bad message to all of us who care about the environment. Zenawi should not be rewarded for the seemingly non-transboundary environmental degradation he has brought to Ethiopia.
- Emphasize the crucial roles of a representative’s records in environmental protection, social justice, good governance, human rights, and the rule of law that are important in shaping and averting Global crisis in climate change.
- Ensure the appropriate use of any climate change financing package to nations with non representative leaders with bad track records on environment, human rights, good governance, and social justice by binding conditions tied to strict measures that would ensure that the funds would not be siphoned off by corrupt leaders such as Mr. Meles Zenawi and others in Africa.
- Refrain from giving funds to a corrupt regime such as Zenawi as doing so would be a waste of resources and tantamount to committing the same mistakes that the world community has made during the 1983/4 Ethiopian famine when., as recently revealed by Zenawi’s rebel comrades, the food aid and money was used to build his Red Army. Mr. Zenawi will use the same international funds, as in the past, to keep political and ethnic cronies to continue suppressing the Ethiopian people.
- Do not undermine the importance of social justice, good governance, human rights, and the empowerment of citizens, and their civil societies in shaping and in averting Global warming
We urge countries of the industrialized world attending the conference not to write a blank check and reward dictators, such as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, who have abysmal records of human rights and the environment.
More information can be found at : AdvocacyEthiopia.org.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:29 am
The Stalinist, Fascist Meles Zenawi must be invite to International Criminal Court.
Dictatoral regime and Leader can not be represent Ethiopian & African.
Ethiopian needs Justice, Freedom and Democracy.
The pannel experts for “Advocacy for Ethiopia” had great resposibility to mention representing Ethiopian.
Well done folks.
Long Live Ethiopia!!!
December 10th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I congratulate the Ethiopian advocacy group for their environental assessment in Ethiopia and it’s impact, how it’s affecting our daily life. It is important to make it clear the the regime in Ethiopia is accountable for it’s wrong policies.
I am sure your effort will distract Meless to be fully confident and believe that he is the right one to represent Africa. Instead he will go back to addis with shame!
I am hoping other advocacy group and activist will dominating the conference by naming and shaming MelASS.
December 10th, 2009 at 10:44 am
All the above names reported on the meeting have Amara first names and Amara last names, Where are the Oromos ? Where are the Tigres ? where are the Gambelas ? Where are Sidamas? Where are the Afars ?
When we talk about “Human right” issue we should start by opening the stages by being inclusive of all Ethiopians (Non Amhara Ethiopians/majority) not only to some neftegna minority amaras.
Long Live Ethiopia!
December 10th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
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December 10th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Journalists are blameless and inocent humans like nuns.
December 10th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
National liberty preceds multinational (regional) democracy!
This short essay and of course my hitherto contributions are my x-mass gift to all my readers and at the same time this one is a good-bye message. Thank you all for reading my opinions till now, be it they are constructive or not to the pragmatic move of Oromo liberation and the liberation movement of all oppressed nations in Ethiopian empire. I have tried to do my contribution using different nick-names for the last many years. One of the fruits I am now enjoying is the current tendency of all Oromo nationalists to preach and practice Oromo uniy for liberty (Tokkummaa for Bilisummaa). This is one of the results of our efforts for many years, thanks Waaqayyoo/Rabbii, we could silence to some extent Weyane cadres and “naive Oromos”, who used to sow a discord among different Oromo groups based on region, party and religion as well as using the division parameters like leaders vs followers, young generation vs old generation, etc.
Now it seems that all Oromo nationalists in the ruling party of Oromia, in the opposition parties aka Oromo democratic federalists, and in the rebel fronts like Oromo Liberation Front do agree on the necessity of Oromo unity as a source of our power to liberate Oromo and Oromia from domination, exploitation and tyranny. Oromo nation being the third big native nation in Africa (next to Berber and Hausa), our liberation will definitely be a precedence and an example for the future self-determination of all national groups in Africa, be it they are big or small and have their autonomy at different levels (state, province, district or county) of adminstrative arrangement of the future African federation.
The coming five months are, the time of “struggle for democracy per election” in the Ethiopian empire. The ruling TPLF wants this election for legitimacy in front of international community (not necessarily in front of Ethiopian nations and peoples) to rule further for the next five years. It prepared its self in the last five years after the defeat it experienced in the election of 2005. The final preparation it undertook is the code of conduct it agreed on with three unitarist parties, which it desparately needed for the legitimacy and as the binding procedure to secure its winning of the next election. All the three “opposition” parties who made this agreement of the code of conduct with the encumbent are the sympathizers of the ex-nefxenya Ethiopia, so that they chose to give the neo-nefxenya Ethiopia to survive further instead of being challenged and transformed by democratic unionists like Medrek at home and AFD in diaspora. Why did this alliance of the ex-nefxenya admirers and the neo-nefxenyas happen now? Is the movemnt of Oromo people and other oppressed nations for liberty endangering the existence of the Abyssinian domination system, which the two nefxenyas try to save?
It is clear that all the oppressed nations in the Ethiopian empire in general and the Oromo nation in particular are fighting for their liberty for the last more than one century. The two nefxenyas in the contrary still sing and dance about the necessity of “unity and democracy”. Unfortunately, there can never be unity of nations and democracy of the empire without first accepting and respecting the God-given right of citizens as individual and the liberty of nations as group. That is why political organizations like AFD and G-7 used to advocate for freedom to be achieved before establishing democracy in the region called Ethiopia. Liberty from exploitation, tyranny and oppression under both the ex-nefxenyas and the neo-nefxenya Weyanes should come to end. If there is such liberty (freedom) of citizens and nations, Oromo people is the last to fear the propagated unity and democracy, which are untiringly preached by those who want to keep the empire’s domination system by any means.
We all know that liberty is a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual or a group has the right to act according to his or her own will. So the question we all need to ask is, do individual citizens and collective nations as a group in Ethiopian empire have such the right to act according to their will? The answer is a big NO!. That is why before preachig about democracy, unity and peace, all the concerned stakeholders need to fight for such liberty together. The attempt of pro-liberty forces to come together like what they did in Medrek and AFD is very encouraging to say the least. If such alliances fight first for freedom (liberty) from Weyane tyranny and achieve it, then the probability of forging both democracy and unity based on their free-will can be high.
The attempt of Weyane to tell us that we do have already achieved freedom, unity based on free will and democracy under their rule is the 21st century big LIE we ever heared in the world. Weyane talks freedom and walks tyranny; talks unity, but walks devide and rule method; talks peace, but walks state terrorism; talks democracy, but walks dictatorship. What the neo-nefxenyas talk and walk are diametrically opposite. What about the opposition? Here we should differentiate the unitarists like AEUP and EDP from the unionists like Medrek and AFD. The unitarists being the nostalgical admirers of the ex-nefxenya just emulate the neo-nefxenyas in their hypocrasy. They talk democracy, but walk to achieve Amhara elite’s dictatorship; they talk unity, but want to keep the empire with its domination system…etc. The unionists are the only genuine opposition group struggling for both freedom and democracy as a precondition for the union of liberated nations in the empire/region to forge a possible united states of Ethiopia as a base for the future United States of Africa.
Of course, democracy is a political government either carried out by the people (direct democracy), or the power to govern is granted to elected representatives (representative democracy). In this sense, the democracy, which was tried by the monarchy of T. Mekonnen, by military dictatorship of Mengistu and now by ethnocratic dictatorship of Meles are the pseudo-democracies we had in the empire. Actually it is practically impossible to democratize an empire, where there is a sort of domination system. For the empire to be democratized, the domination system of both the ex- and neo-nefxenyas must be destroyed. This shows us that first comes national liberty, then follows regional (empire’s) democracy. Democrcy under national slavery (unity without liberty) such us what we do see in the Ethiopian empire system is only a dream, which can never be realized. Oromo nation in particular and all other oppressed nations in general need to fight for our libery by any means now. We can realize democracy only in a liberated Oromia and in the other liberated national areas, that is why democratization of the Ethiopian empire is a futile excercise, even though it is one of the means leading us to our Kaayyoo (the END-goal). To achieve the liberty we do want, we need to be well-armed (empowered). Empowering Oromo nation and other oppressed nations can only come through Tokkummaa for Bilisummaa (unity for liberty) of all national liberation fronts. So let’s unite first to achieve liberty from Weyane’s tyranny and then forge a democracy in a multinational union of the region callled Ethiopia. Democratization of such a NEW Ethiopia is possible on the contrary to the attempt of democratizing the empire Ethiopia..
Regarding the unity we do talk about, there are two types of unity: the one required to achieve liberty, which is the unity of the freedom movements of all nations (unity for liberty), and the other one is which we need after liberty, that is a union of nations in the region/empire. To have the first one (unity for liberty), it is good to have a common ground for all opposition freedom fighters regarding what to achieve after liberty. The common ground can only be to have a union of liberated nations in the empire/region. The two nefxenyas (wolves in a sheep clothing), including those which want to dismantle Oromia (the wish of the ex-nefxenya) and those which want to keep the status quo of the de-autonomized Oromia (the wish of the neo-nefxenya), must be dealt with by the cooperation and the coordination of the two parts of the unionist opposition, i.e by the working together of those, for instance, who want to achieve only Oromian autonomy in Ethiopian federation, like what OFC of Medrek is trying and those who do fight for Oromian independence in a possible union of nations in the empire/region like for what OLF struggles.
So let us the unionist opposition groups at home in the form of Medrek and groups in diaspora in the form of AFD which does now include OLF, ONLF, SLF, BPLM and GPLM cooperate and coordinate our efforts. I hope the other ‘quasi-unionists’ like G-7, EPPF, EPRP and UEDF-diaspora will join the AFD group or we will see in the near future if they are part and parcel of the unitarist admirers of the ex-nefxenyas. I know that specially G-7 already made an acceptance of unconditional Ethiopian unity as a precondition to forge any sort of alliance with AFD member organizations. With such arrogant position, G-7 just showed its color of a tendency to long for the unitarist Ethiopia. I just recommend G-7 and the likes to make the right of citizens and the wish of nations for liberty as a common ground, not their mantra about unconditional unity. Only free citzens and free nations can decide on the issue of Yes vs No to a union of nations in the empire/region, in which we can forge democracy of multi-national Ethiopia, of course after securing our individual and national liberty. That is why we tend to say: national liberty such as Oromian liberty preceds regional democracy like that of Ethiopian democracy!
Galatoomaa and nagaan ta’a!!
December 16th, 2009 at 2:20 am
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