Orphaning of Our Political Struggle by the West: A Call for Determination

By the way things appear from the angle of the stance of the West towards supporting our political struggle to get rid of the tyrannical government of Meles Zenawi, it looks like that it is being orphaned, confirming the notion that it is we, the people of Ethiopia, who have to take the primary responsibility in getting the politics right in Ethiopia, and that we can not rely on anybody else.

Even the hopes that I had since the election of Barak Obama as the US President, that things will change for Ethiopia for the better, are beginning to die by the day. This fear is not unfounded of course. There were some recent observations that caused my legitimate fear.

First, despite the constant call from the Ethiopian opposition and the Ethiopian people, not to enrich the Woyane regime with money in the name of development assistance, without requiring the regime to fully respect the rights of its citizens, was ignored by the European Union when they granted the dectators hundreds of thousnads of dollars to the dictators.

Second, in a very recent testimony before the US "House Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations Committee on Appropriations", Ambassador David Shinn (a former Ambassador to Ethiopia) was recommending, that the US not push Ethiopia on the issue of democratization and human rights because of Ethiopia's developing relationships with China and Russia, because Ethiopia was cooperating with the US on the issue of terrorism, and its potential for future US interests in the Horn of Africa region.

This testimony was in fact being capitalized for a political gain in an article on the Sudan Tribune Newspaper by Tesfa-alem Tekle, which the Ambassador had to take note of.

Third, the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during her visit to China, was heard emphasizing, despite China's dismal human rights record, how to build partnership with China in the face of the global economic down turn. So human rights in China is secondary to US economic interests.It may also be true that human rights in Ethiopia is secondary to US's global war on terror interests.

When it comes to Ethiopia, there might even be further conflicting interests, associated with the receipt of millions of dollars by President Bill Clinton for his foundation from the Ethiopian tycoon, Al Amoudi. To that effect, even recently, the former president, his daughter, his brother and his brother's son were visiting their projects in Ethiopia where they were being hailed by the project's host community. Will the Secretary of State, be neutrally critical in assessing the dectatorial regime of Ethiopia, when her family and her in-laws are being treated as heroes?

Fourth, Meles is invited by the British PM for the G-20 meeting in April in London. Why on earth should Meles be the one to represent Africa in that meeting when his human rights records are dismal as are his economic performance, where 12 million Ethiopians are starving due to his communist economic policies and discriminatory practices?

If we are to achieve our politcal objective of getting rid of the dictatorail regime in Ethiopia and build a democratic culture and nation, we have to be aware of these developments and strengthen our own unity and present ourselves as formidable opponents, showing something tangible on the ground. It is then and only then that our orphaned political struggle will by fathered by all.