By Alemayehu G. Mariam* | 8 March 2010
If democracy is a government of the people, kleptocracy is a government of thieves.
Last week the secret world of Meles Zenawi’s kleptocracy, famine aid-sharking and money laundering in Ethiopia was exposed by two of his former comrades-in-arms in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Gebremedhin Araya, a former treasurer and TPLF co-founder Dr. Aregawi Berhe, detailed the scam used to swindle, hustle and con millions of dollars from international famine relief organizations in the mid-1980s. The two former top leaders accused the TPLF leadership, including Zenawi, for taking tens of millions of dollars earmarked for famine relief in the Tigrai region to buy weapons and enrich themselves.
Gebremedhin said he personally handed cash payments and checks in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to Zenawi and Sebhat Nega, the top two TPLF leaders who controlled the cash flow of the organization. Although Gebremedhin was the treasurer, he said he was not privileged to know what happened to the money after he delivered it to Zenawi or Nega. The incriminatory evidence, (including a candid photograph of TPLF cadres counting and recording wads of cash handed over to them by a foreign aid worker from a large satchel on the floor), is shocking as it is damning and irrefutable.
In 1984/5, at the height of the catastrophic famine, nearly a quarter of a billion dollars were raised internationally for famine relief in Ethiopia. Michael Buerek of the BBC who visited the Tigrai region at the height of the famine in 1984 described the situation as “a biblical famine in the 20th Century” and “the closest thing to hell on Earth” (See video1).
According to the available evidence, normal delivery of emergency humanitarian aid to the Tigrai region in 1984 was virtually impossible because of rebel activity in the outlying areas and bombardment by the military junta. The road normally used to deliver aid supplies to the Tigrai region from the capital had become unusable because of rebel military activity. The various international famine relief non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had to find alternate routes to quickly deliver relief aid to victims in rebel-controlled areas. Many of these NGOs eventually set up shop in eastern Sudan close to the Tigrai border in an attempt to deliver aid quickly. The large concentration of NGOs and the publicity surrounding the enormous fundraising efforts by various international celebrities for Ethiopian famine victims caught the attention of the TPLF leaders who saw a lucrative business opportunity for themselves delivering relief aid to victims in areas their controlled.
According to the former TPLF leaders, Zenawi and his top cadres hatched out and successfully executed a scam to use a front “humanitarian relief” organization called “Relief Society of Tigrai” (REST) for aid delivery. The TPLF leaders managed to “convince” the various NGOs operating out of the Sudan that REST is a genuine charity organization completely separate from the TPLF, the declared military wing. In fact, REST was the other face of the TPLF coin.
The evidence further indicates that to magnify the severity and extremity of the famine situation for the NGOs, the TPLF leaders ordered the exodus of large numbers of victims into the Sudan creating a mushroom of refugee settlements in the Sudanese border areas overnight. Using different techniques and methods, the TPLF leaders stage managed an elaborate marketing “drama” for the NGOs to buy and deliver aid to the large famine-stricken population inside Tigrai. This was done principally by organizing a small group of their most trusted and inner circle members to pose as “grain merchants” and solicit business from the NGOs.
The deception games, or more accurately the famine aid-sharking scheme, played on the Western NGOs were varied. At the onset of the scam, they used a three-staged process. In stage one, one group of TPLF/REST officials masquerading as legitimate grain merchants would approach the myriad NGOs and offer to sell them substantial quantities of grain for quick delivery to the famine victims. At the time, the TPLF had acquired and stashed in secret warehouses grains from various sources, including NGOs, for use by its fighters. These secretly stashed grain stockpiles were in fact being offered for sale to the NGOs. The TPLF/REST “grain dealers” would complete the sale transaction and return back to their hideouts with the payment from the NGOs. Gebremedhin said he delivered to Zenawi and Sebhat Nega the cash and check payments from the NGOs. He described the scam with mind-numbing simplicity:
I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. The NGOs don’t know me because my name was Mohammed. It was a trick assigned (created) by the top leaders for the NGOs. I received a great amount of money from the NGOs and the money was automatically taken by (the TPLF) leaders. The money, much of it, the leaders put it in their accounts in Western Europe. Some of it was used to buy weapons. The people did not get half a kilogram of maize.
Once the purchase was made another group of TPLF/REST operatives would take over the responsibility of delivering the relief aid inside Tigrai. In the second stage, TPLF/REST officials would facilitate spot checks of grain stockpiles in their own secret warehouses. But the warehouses were tricked out. Gebremedhin said, “if you go there, half of the warehouse was stacked full of sand.” The NGO representatives would perform visual inspections of the stockpiles, give their approval and cross back into the Sudan to conduct additional grain purchases.
In the third stage, the same or different group of TPLF/REST officials would go back to the NGOs and make a pitch for additional sales of grains for delivery in a different part of Tigrai. These offers did not involve any new or fresh supplies of grain. Instead, stockpiles of grain already in secret storage facilities in various locations throughout Tigrai were trucked around to new locations, giving the appearance to the NGOs that fresh supplies of grain were being bought in and delivered. Since the aid workers have no means of independently verifying the grain that is being shuttled from one location to another from completely fresh shipments, they would perform cursory inspections and make payments. In that manner, TPLF/REST was able to sell and resell multiple times the same previously acquired stockpile of grain (and sand) to the NGOs generating millions of dollars in revenue. TPLF/REST used various ways and techniques in 1985 to maximize its business transactions with the NGOs and in selling grain shipments sent by donor countries.
Dr. Aregawi told the BBC that of the $100 million that went through TPLF hands at the time, $95 million was diverted for weapons purchases and other purposes not related to famine relief. He stated that the TPLF stage-managed “dramas” to “fool the aid workers”. A recent BBC investigation identified a 1985 official CIA document which concluded: “Some funds that insurgent organizations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes.” Robert Houdek, a senior US diplomat in Ethiopia in the late 1980s, was quoted by the BBC saying that TPLF members at the time told him that some aid money was used to buy weapons. An aid worker named Max Peberdy stated that he had personally delivered to TPLF/REST officials $500,000 in Ethiopian currency to purchase grain.
The prima facie evidence of massive relief aid diversion by the TPLF is compelling and damning2. Those accused of involvement in the wrongdoing have dismissed the evidence as “rubbish”; they have not called for a full fact-finding inquiry into the charges to clear their names of such serious and grave charges. Until such inquiry takes place, the evidence of aid-sharking and theft stands unchallenged and unrefuted. To be sure, very little of the famine aid money in 1984/5 channeled through the TPLF went to help the hungry, poor and dying in Tigrai. Nearly all of it (95%) was diverted for military and other purposes. Bob Geldof who organized Live Aid/Band Aid in 1984 collecting tens of millions of dollars in donations recently threatened, “If there is any money missing I will sue the Ethiopian government.”
The systematic plunder and pillage of Ethiopia over the past two decades can now be put in clear perspective.
We now know:
Why Ethiopia’s only outlet to the sea was signed, sealed and delivered, overriding contrary advice by international diplomats;
What went down in the deal to hand over Badme to the aggressor in binding international arbitration following the aggressor’s decisive military defeat at the cost of over 80,000 Ethiopian lives;
How the May 2005 elections were stolen in broad daylight;
Why the missing millions of dollars worth of gold bars from the national bank in 2007 are still missing; Of the secret sweetheart deals that turned over the country’s gold mines to cronies at bargain-basement prices;
How state enterprises were given out to family, friends and supporters for pittance in the name of privatization;
About the secret deals made to demarcate the border between the Sudan and Ethiopia;
About the fire sale of millions of hectares of farmland to foreign “investors”;
About the no-collateral bank loans in the millions of dollars to friends and supporters and the 1.7 billion birr ($141.6 million) loan to Messebo Cement Factory, one of the many companies owned by the “Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray” (EFFORT a/k/a Zenawi, Inc.,), which sent the Development Bank of Ethiopia careening into insolvency);
About the monopoly of the cement business by Zenawi, Inc./EFFORT;
About the multi-million dollar child-trafficking business in the name of inter-country adoptions;
About the secret deals to sole source the construction of the Gilgel Gibe dams to an Italian company;
About the “genocide and interhamwe” scare talk;
About the corrupt procurement and contracting practices that direct state business to cronies, supporters and friends;
About the rampant nepotism, patronage and clientelism;
Why we know why draconian “laws” we enacted to criminalize NGOs and the independent press; and on and on and on.
We know because we now have the blueprint for the perfect kleptocracy!
One must grudgingly admire these con men for their sheer audacity, genius and creativity in ripping off so much money from the charities in the mid-1980s (and for the last two decades from the Ethiopian people). Even Ali Baba and his 40 thieves could not have pulled off such a brilliant scheme to sell and re-sell the NGOs the same sand as grain over and over again. Even Hermes, the Greek god of thieves, would not have been able to come up with such an exquisitely perfect plan to hoodwink and bamboozle gullible NGOs of millions of dollars. They truly deserve the title, “A New Breed of African Thieves”.
The facts are plain to see. We know now that these thieves did not stand for the people of Tigrai at the critical hour in 1984. They sure as hell do not stand for the people of Ethiopia today. They stand for themselves and no one else. They will try to cling to power by creating enmity and polarization between the people of Tigrai and their brothers and sister in the rest of Ethiopia. That is the ONLY way they can stay in power. As an old Ethiopian saying teaches, disorder and chaos creates ideal conditions for thieves (Gir gir le leba yimechal.) The Ethiopian opposition today is in a state of gir-gir (disarray, discord and mess). When the core of opposition political activity revolves around ethnic bashing, finger pointing and finger wagging, the ideal conditions for thievery are created and maintained. But there is a way to deal with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves:
Close ranks regardless of ethnicity or regionality; reaffirm our basic humanity in our Ethiopianity; renounce our old enmity; openly declare our steadfast unity and trumpet our Ethiopian nationality at every opportunity.
When we have done these things, we will have freed ourselves from domination and rule by a kleptoctracy — a government of thieves, by thieves, for thieves!
We should all thank BBC’s Africa Editor, Martin Plaut, for his extraordinary investigative work in this affair.
FIGHT CRIME. SAY “NO” TO THIEVES!
Notes
1 See 1984 BBC video at: bbc.co.uk…
2 See details of the scam in excerpts from Gebremedin Araya’s Amharic manuscript: Pt. 1, ethiomedia.com/…
Pt. 2, ethiomedia.com/…
* Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. He writes a regular blog on The Huffington Post, and his commentaries appear regularly on pambazuka.org, allafrica.com, newamericamedia.org and other sites.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:34 am
Thanks Prof. Alemayehu G. Mariam!
እናት አገራችንን ከዘራፊዎች እናድናት ወገን!
March 8th, 2010 at 5:23 am
Shocked to know CIA is one of … who brought EPLF/TPLF to power.
I just read Tibebe’s Article from EThiomedia and learned Major Dawit, who contacted EPLF in the 89 Coup plote was a CIA agent. We are also told the current US Defense Minister, Gate, was the the one, being deputy CIA chief at the time, who had arranged all those things.
I am now shocked and it seems to me as long as this man (Gate) and others stay in power it is a futile attempt for us to try to convince Obama or others to come to our rescue. Really Ethiopia’s problem is very complex and full of tragedy.
March 8th, 2010 at 5:44 am
Bob Geldof is apparently a double faced man. Here is what he said in the wake of the 2005 massacre by Zenawi’s troops:
Sir Bob Geldof told Channel 4 News the Ethiopian leader shoud ‘grow up’. On Channel 4 News at noon, he criticised the Ethiopian leader Meles Zanawi for violence which left dead 22 people who were protesting against the election result [in reality more than 8 times that number; no action has been taken to date despite an Inquiry Commission report that slammed the Meles regime. Two Commission members subsequently went into exile rather than make compromises as demanded by the government (ed.)]. Sir Bob had worked closely with the Ethiopian leader on producing the African report. He said: “Spare me, what are they doing? It is pathetic. I despair, I really despair. “No doubt, I’ll get a briefing from the Ethiopian embassy: ‘it wasn’t like this, it was like that’. Grow up, they make me puke. “I know those people, Meles Zanawi is a seriously clever man, what is he doing? What is he doing closing down radio stations, and journalists and that, it’s a disgrace. Behave.”
March 8th, 2010 at 7:15 am
professor Alemayehu your articles every week are currently and important your determination to bring democracy in ethiopia impresed all ethiopians we are all thank you for your sacrifing your time to show us the right direction i personaly learn a lot from you please dont give up.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:08 am
The ethnical fascist Meles Zenawi and his front TPLF claim to stand for the freedom and wellbeing of the people of Tigray. Almost all the Tigrayan elite and common people of Tigray still support their fascist and racist leader Meles Zenawi. The siphoing of the badly needed food aid money during the famine of the Mid 80`s shows that Meles is cruel and willing to sacrifice or expend the lives of his Fellow Tigrayans in pursuit of his political agenda. Meles has alienated the Tigrayans from Ethiopians and using the former as intruments of pillage and repression in the country. It is important for the Tigrayans to realize that the fascist and racist Meles is destroying their future in the country and making them the enemeis and targets of Ethiopians.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:18 am
The ” New breed of African thieves” is the perfect description of the ethnocracy of the ethnic fascist Meles and his Tigrayan ethnical fascist regime suffocating and looting Ethiopia. Under the fascist and racist Tigrayan elite controlled and bled Ethiopia, Ethiopians are dsicriminated and marginalized to the extent of being secondary citizens. We are watching angrily but passively when Meles and his Tigrayan followers
are looting our resources and leading lavish liives. As a result we have now the very special class of Tigrayans who despise Ethiopians and consider themselves as superiors.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Seeing your weekly fact based analysis is just a blessing,professor.We are proud we have you in our camp where 94% of Ethiopians are.We would be very glad to Know your take on the planed cooperation to work with Eritreans against our common enemy,woyane.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Hi dear friends,
Hey talking about their crime is useless-we already know it. Let us start the war against these brutes at least on the Web.
Let us hold people like Geldof responsible for trying to defend those who committed genocide of 6 million Oromo and Amharas and at the same time spreading Hive to make 15 million children orphans
You in the media open especial pages to expose such crimes
Muhamed
March 8th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Another brilliant anayisis, Prof. Al Mariam, as usual. Thanks so much and keep teaching us! Your efforts will bear fruit one day!
One other important revelation lately which should also be noted prominently is that Ethiopia is now one of the five countries, with oil rich Iran, Angola, and Ecuador, and the reclusive regime of North Korea, charged for MONEY LAUDERING.
For a poor country with 13 million starving people, making it to the list of money laundering criminal nations is, to say the least, astounding.
In addition to the gold bars fiasaco, where officials of the Woyane regime secretely removed real gold bars and replaced them with fake ones, and the recent wave of land leasing of millions of hectares of fertile land to foreign companies, and the fact that all the money that comes from these farmland deals is not recorded in the revenue accounts of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance, all explain why Ethiopia is a money laundering nation, together with Iran and North Korea, which are under international economic sanctions. We can understand why for Iran and N. Korea since they are under international sanctions.
The case of Ethiopia could only be explained by the fact that a massive money transfer out of the country is being perpetrated by the criminal regime of Meles Zenawi.
A crime of enormous magnitude is being perpetrated in Ethiopia by the Woyanes, and we Ethiopians are helpless to do anythig about it!
Shame par excellence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 8th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
tnx pro.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Where is the evidence ? ?
//// so far there is no concret evidence to backup the story.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
I was in the Sudan as a refugee during that time when the aid turned TPLF to become a state within a state. Without that aid money one could rightly argue TPLF would not have become to be a force that it became. Overnight because of the aid the movement became to be a formidable force. Tigreans who joined the movement dramatically increased. To those of us who were in the Sudan at the time that TPLF used the aid money to bolster its military cabability might not be a suprising news whatsoever. Except for the Western donors who could not have imagined such a thing happening, I think, many Ethiopians at least were suspecting TPLF could use the money as it wishes not as the donors wish. When BBC finally came up with the story, it lends support to the argument some had been making for years: the Tigreans elites, flushed with dollars, were in the making long before they reached Aratkilo. But I do not agree with Alemayehu’s effort to link the TPLF mismanagment of the money more than two decades ago with the 20 years plundering that followed after they seized power. They used that money largely to topple the government. Now the plundering of Ethiopia’s wealth continued because the government has created purposely a culture that says everybody for him/herself inorder to force everybody to be manageable.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Hello professor can we paste this article on http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2010/03/ethiopia.html link because its a good one and the BBC guys should read it.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
The author is very smart politician i like his artice, I hope this is true, if it is true for sure will divide the people of Tigraye and in process to sway away against woyane, that way we will successfully eliminate woyane at once.
The only thing we need now is show the evidence to support the story.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caF_F0aSsXA&feature=player_embedded
March 8th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Dear Al Mariam,
Great job as usual. We appreciate BBC and Plaut for bringing this story! However, let past be past and we need to give Kudos to Aregawi Berhe and Gebremedihin for bringing this story. Remember, we are not like Weyane bent on revenge so, you should have given Kudos to the two above as well. When you do that, it shows Ethiopia is forgiving and in fact work with them to change the course. Let us not be like other Africans bent on revenge. Without the goodwill of Tigreans such as the above two, trust me we won’t save Ethiopia.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Life Without Internet in Ethiopia
For the first time in over ten years, I spent the night without Internet access
By John Savageau Article Rating:
March 8, 2010 12:48 AM EST Reads: 493
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For the first time in over ten years, I spent the night without Internet access. Ten years of working in remote parts of Mongolia, Vietnam, Palestine, Indonesia, and other small and developing countries, and in March 2010 I finally hit the access wall. My hotel in Addis Ababa does not have Internet access. And not a single WiFi or wireless connection available nearby.
Maybe it is just not realistic to believe that in the year 2010 travelers or residents of a major city like Addis Ababa would enjoy the same sense of Internet entitlement we enjoy in other parts of the world. It is probably more realistic to think fresh water is a higher priority than Facebook. Probably a higher priority to think that basic nutrition is a higher priority to some people in the world than Twitter.
Having been plucked up from the opulence of Burbank, California, where Friday afternoon brought the amusement of watching about 50 SUVs and minivans queuing to pick up elementary and middle school children, as it is not reasonable to expect children to walk more than 100 yards from school to home, being denied email and net access for a night is shocking.
Does the Opulent World Owe the Developing World Anything?
There is an old phrase explaining that “nobody likes a victim.” When natural disasters occur, wars create a large number of refugees, or other events propel people to leave their homelands for safer places, the countries and people who are forced to absorb those refugees normally look at them with contempt. It is one thing to watch the impact of a typhoon or earthquake on a country via CNN, and maybe donate a few dollars to help bring food, but in most cases we want to watch a different story on the next day’s news, and we rarely welcome refugees with open arms into our community.
Easy to understand why. As a society and culture, wealthy countries have normally built their communities with hard work, and the residents enjoy the quality of life they’ve built. Visitors are welcome, but communities often find it difficult to absorb new people, particularly those with no money or have lost nearly everything they owned, into a community with a stable economy, school system, and social system.
We have some compassion for those who are in need, but much like driving past a major automobile accident on the freeway, we feel compelled to look, but then we drive past and soon forget the tragedy another human being is going through a few miles back on the road.
How We Reduce the Burden, and Strengthen our Global Community
For sure, Internet access may not purify or deliver water to those with a basic need. However education delivered to all levels of economic or social groups will potentially bring better intellectual capacity to those residents and leaders in poor and developing countries to plan for the future, with the ever-increasing capacity of taking care of their own problems. Educated people in most cases are simply better prepared to respond to disasters and problems when they occur.
Internet access is a very powerful tool in bringing basic and advanced education to any part of the world with a connection. When a student in Addis Ababa, or any other part of the country, has the same access to online lectures, course materials, and even formal education programs over the Internet, the national capacity for dealing with topics ranging from developing water strategies, to energy, to agriculture, to entertainment all become one small step easier to attain than if the developing country had to do it on their own.
But what about UN and other NGO Programs?
Like the community that does not want to be burdened with a long term, recurring commitment to absorbing refugees, global philanthropy has a time threshold. New disasters are happening daily. New wars are popping up around the world at the same rate as ever, and when your own disaster is falling behind the front page in priority, then it is the people of that location or country who eventually have to solve the problems on their own.
There are simply not enough resources, emotionally or economically to go around.
CIO, CTO & Developer Resources
There is one common characteristic of communities which handle disaster better than others. They are well educated. California handles earthquakes and wildfires without bringing the state to a halt. France handles major flooding and other weather-related disasters, Okinawa finds Super-Typhoons a passing amusement, and Japan has tsunami response down to a science.
Sure, those countries have money, but even Japan and Germany started out with nearly no resources after the second war, and now are both economic powers. It is education, and the resolve of an educated society.
Back to the Internet
Delivering online resources to poor countries is becoming cheaper and more powerful every day. Wireless technologies are making fixed copper a legacy, and the cost of Netbooks and powerful workstations is dropping every day. Localization and language translation are becoming more powerful every day.
Don’t stop delivering clean water, but let’s carefully consider the long term impact of delivering a tool to the nations of the world, including the area I stayed in Addis Ababa, and give everybody access to the same intellectual development tools as our kids in Burbank.
Check out resources published by the World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and others to find how we might better support development of eLearning in the developing world, as well as development of basic infrastructure.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Al G.Mariam
Is one smart fellow, he knows more about Ethiopia than any other person I read. He understands not only the political part of the Werime, but also the economic benefits the regime is raking. Weyane corruption is to the core, they were bandits in Ethiopia during their time as liberation freedom fighters few years ago. Collecting money from all countries donating in the name of the people has been more flowed than people thought before. They blamed Derg blocking aid to Tigray, and the Geldofs and other international NGOS started to make deals with TPLF in order to facilitate what they thought was aid to the affected and starving people of Tigray. That where Geldof and the other NGOs failed to understand TPLF, they were worse as far as distributing food aid to the hungry than the Derg regime was. Geldof did not understand the game, he got played and instead of accepting fault in understanding the TPLF he is resisting to accept fault at any level. He thinks 99.65% of the aid money was used for good, while the people who were spending the very money he was supplying them are telling the world 95% of the aid money was spent in armament.
Look what happened to Gilgel-II contract, the Italians refused to follow through EU’s lending protocol because the Weyane regime wanted to keep this deal private. No government can keep public deals private, this is not a deal between two companies, this is a deal between a regime and a private company. This illustrates how corrupted the regime is, if they wanted to hide the deal from their people, because it fears the people do not accept it. An Italian company getting the contract without any bidding kicked in 50mil Euro, while the rest coming from EU bank. This was a deal the IMF and WB did not like but because they do the same thing every now and then they accepted the Italian deal with a grain of salt. Luckily the project was not studied according to the project fund allocation procedure the project fell apart essentially destroying the 26 km water channel right at the beginning of the dam operation. This is what happens when there is a rush-rush fund for wrong project is committed to hide the agreements.
Immediately after the Weyane regime concluded the deal with an Italian company they asked for money from IMF to alleviate the power shortage in Addis. IMF in turn asked for bidding process to be presented, but Weyane did not do any bidding at all. They thought they can get IMF to commit funding like the EU, which committed funding because the Italians pulled many strings in Brussels. Well, the process in the IMF is not the same, the Weyanes got mad at the IMF project fund department personnel. They wanted to do the same thing they did with Gilgel-II project, get the funding from IMF and give the contract to an Italian company, in exchange Weyane to control hire/fire power of all employees. As usual the people to be hired for that contract were all Tigryan laborers just like they did in the Gilgel-II project.
IMF refused to release the fund without proper bidding. When asked for the reason for the power shortage, Meles Zenawi blamed IMF project funding personnel for not releasing funds necessary for the project to start in order to alleviate the power shortage in Addis. It was like a bad Ethiopian drama being played on the open, the IMF project fund allocation department personnel came out and set the record straight, she asked for proper bidding be presented in order for her department to approve the funding for the project. Meles then asked his corrupting pals to remove the Japanese lady and replace her with understanding anglo-saxon, because he knows how to work them better.
IMF Ethiopia laughed at them and reminded the world Meles does not have the power to request for a friendly IMF personnel. Just because WB president Robert Zolick is a Weyane friendly guy they thought they can have IMF hire a person they like. We all know WB bankrolled the Somali war, and assisted Meles and Co. to attain many buildings in Addis, in addition Meles provided a jail for CIA to do their international rendition operation, which they bring an innocent farmer and tortured in Ethiopia and if he dies in the middle of torture then gets buried in Addis, and if he makes then goes back to his native country. Just because the Weyane regime is being used for the dirty CIA work, that does not qualify them to ask for a friendly IMF personnel.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Thank you prof Al Mariam for clarifying and analysing this very important issue about today’s absentee owned country called Ethiopia. When I read the NGOs drama, the pseudo gold transaction in the NBE, the fertile land bid, the children trade, the pletical game play at the expense of the 80,000 poor ethiopian soldiers who died in Bademe, about the deal w/c left Ethiopia land locked forever, the case of Shibre Desalegn and the other 200 brothers and sisters who gun down on day light on the street of Addis, the case of Ethiopian hero Judge Birtukan Mideksa etc made me wonder about our oppurtunistic behavior and unable to do anything. The million dollar question is What is to be done to end this once for all. These gungsters are merciless and planning to do the same for the next decades.
Anyway, I am proud to have a person like Al mariam in the Ethiopian gin bank. Keep up your work. One day we might wake up and listen.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Al,would you please give your thought about the benefit of working with the Eritrean government to remove woyane.In my opinion it is just stupid not to use the opportunity.
March 9th, 2010 at 12:19 am
lets not also forget whether we are talking about Meles or gondolf we are talking about some young people at the time. No matter where their aspiretion comes from.
March 9th, 2010 at 11:05 am
የመለሰ የጥፋት መሰረታዊ እቅድ ዛሬ የተጀመረ ሳይሆን ከመጀመርያ የተጸነስ ለመሆኑ ስለሰው አይምሮ ተመራማሪዎች በበለጠ ሊገልጡት የሚችሉት የጥናት ስልት በመተው በአብዛኛው የነበረውን ፍጹም የዘረኝነት በሽታ ከአዲስ አበባ ከመውጣቱ በፊት ያቀደው የዘር የትምክህት ውሸት አጋጭነት ከውንጌት እስከ ዩኒቨርስቲ የሚያውቁት ከዛም ከነበርው የራስ ወዳድነት ጋድኞቹን በመክዳት በማጣለት ሸር በማድረግ የብዙዎች ሕይወት ማጥፋቱ ይነገርረታል::
ለምሳሌ አረጋዊ በርሄ, ግደይ ገብረጽዮን, ተክለ ሃውዝ ከድርጅቱ ሲባረሩ ከተደረገውን ሴራ ሁሉም የትግሉ የበላይ ተጠሪዎች እንደሚያወቁት በመለስና በስብሓት አባይ አባዲ የተጠነሰሰ እንደነበር በውቅቱ ሕዋሓት በሻእቢያ ሙሉ ቁጥጥር በመሆኑ እስከዛሬም ሊገለጽ የመይፈልጉት የትግራይ ልጆች በመሳርያ ለውጥ ለሻእቢያ ይውጉ እንደነበር: ተክለ ሃዋዝ የት ደረሰ (ምን ገደለው )ለምን ? የሚል አንድም አይደመጥም ዛሬ በየነጻ ድሕረገጽ የሚወጡት ጽሁፎች ለምን አያወሱም ታድያ መለሰ የመስረቅ ፈቃድ ብቻ ሳይሆን የቅንጸላም (የመፍጀት )ፈቃድ ተሰጥቶታል አሁንም ይህን እኩይ ድርጊቱን በሰፉው ተያይዞት የሕዛብን መብትና ነጻነት በመርገጥ ፓርላማ ተብየውን ሳያማክር መሬት በመሸንሸን ሕዝቡን በማፈናቀል የሚሰራው ወንጀል በዝምታ የምታለፍ እንዳል ሆነ ሁሉም ዜጋ ማወቅና መቃወም እንዳለበት የግል ጉዳይ ሳይሆን የሀገር ጉዳይ አድርጎ መመልከት እንዳለበት ለማሳውቅ ነው:
የዚህን ሌብነት አበጥረው የሚያውቁት አቶ ገብረመድሕን አርአያ ሌሎቹም በቂ መረጃዎች በመሆናቸው መለሰ ሃፍረቱን ተከናንቦ የፍጅት የጥላቻ እቅድ እንዳያራምድ ሁሉም የትግራይ ልጆች ከወገናቸው ከቀሪው ሰፊው የእትዮጵያ ሕዝብ በማበር ካለበት የአፈና የረገጣ ከውያነ ጣምራ ገዥዎች ፈንቅሎ ለመውጣት ትግሉን ማፋፋም ይጠበቅበታል::