Made in America Genocide in Ethiopia Part 3
The murder of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’s (GERD) beloved Chief Engineer Simegew Bekele
The late Chief Engineer of GERD Engineer Simegnew Bekele - An Ethiopian Hero, Tigrai Online, July 25, 2018
Although governments are typically thought to have an obligation to serve the people that clearly isn’t the case in a growing number of nations. The majority of Americans (70%) for example don’t believe their representatives represent them, and this is a belief increasingly held worldwide. Although no survey of Ethiopians has been taken thus far regarding the following case, there appears to be near universal belief that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was behind the murder of the nation’s most respected engineer working on the single largest Ethiopian led infrastructural project in history designed to bring electricity to the entire nation.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed assumed the office of Prime Minister on April 2, 2018. On July 25, 2018 the beloved chief engineer GERD project was murdered. True, the police determined it to be suicide, but the facts suggest otherwise.
Some accounts are best related in the peoples’ own words.
“The other angering and mystifying situation about this freakazoid prime minster is his refusal to speak and promote the most important project in Ethiopia’s history, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – GERD. The Ethiopian people have paid millions of their hard-earned money for the construction of the GERD which is almost 75% completed, but since this man came to power he totally ignored the project and he instructed the media to ignore it, why? We all know what happened to our hero and beloved Engineer Simegew Bekele the Chief Engineer of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
http://www.tigraionline.com/articles/abiy-ahmed-sellout.html
What happened to Chief Engineer of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Simegnew Bekele?
Chief Engineer of GERD Engineer Simegnew Bekele found dead in his car, Tigrai Online, July 25, 2018,
“Engineer Simegew Bekele was the face of Ethiopian mega dam project from the first time the project was started seven years ago. Engineer Simegew was hand picked by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to lead the project and he was one of the driving forces of the GERD project. Engineer Simegew Bekele was a motivation for millions of Ethiopians to contribute to the successful completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
“The Ethiopian police so far didn’t say who is responsible for Engineer Simegew Bekele life. The Egyptian government has been trying to stop the GERD project from the first beginning using different methods.”
http://www.tigraionline.com/articles/simegnew-bekele-passed.html
On Twitter one can find:
“PMAA gov’t stripped him of his security & chauffeur the same day the PM himself belittled the project. And all happened while the PM was away? Huh. All these can't be coincidences. We all know Engineer Simegew was close to the previous leadership too.”
Another responder:
“That is the very thought that was circulating my mind! That is a definite possibility. It’s a classic government move to execute someone before any hidden information gets leaked out.”
Though the official Ethiopian police report concluded that Chief Engineer died of suicide almost everyone assumes he was murdered. According to Engineering News Record:
Who Killed the Chief Engineer of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam? by Shem Oirere, August 7, 2018
“Federal Police Commissioner Zeynu Gemal said Bekele, who took over as project manager in 2011, was found at the busy Meskel Square in Addis Ababa with a handgun beside him in a car. A bullet had entered his head from behind his right ear. Unconfirmed reports stated that Bekele was preparing to give an update of the ambitious project days after the prime minister reportedly indicated that the remaining 40% of the project would take many more years to finish.”
How many people commit suicide by shooting themselves behind the right ear? True, writers from the Tigray region might well be predisposed to blame the Prime Minister, but 1) why did the police conclude it was a suicide when a great deal of evidence points to murder, and 2) why has Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali halted work on this magnificent project when it’s 75% completed?
The above article doesn’t attempt to answer the question posed in the title, but does mention:
“Egypt has expressed concern the project could substantially reduce its share of the Nile water as the country relies on it for 85% of its water supply. Controversy has dogged the project from the time it begun, after environmental groups led by International Rivers raised alarm over the possibility of the dam holding sediments on which agricultural communities in Sudan rely on for crop production, and the likely impact on Egypt's irrigation and domestic consumption.”
American interference didn’t help.
“The point of contention between the three countries is the dam’s location on the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile supplies approximately 80% of the water to the main river Nile, along which both Egypt and Sudan lie. With its desert climate, Egypt relies on the Nile to meet 90% of its water needs. Negotiations between the three countries have been ongoing for the best part of a decade. Tempers flared when the US stepped in to mediate the dispute in 2019 due to comments by President Trump that Egypt would not be able to live with the dam and might ‘blow up’ the construction.”
https://www.power-technology.com/comment/tigray-conflict-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam/
In spite of all that most Ethiopians believe Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was behind the murder.
Located in Northwest Ethiopia GERD isn’t that far from the Sudanese border or the Sudanese Roseires Dam also on the Blue Nile, first completed in 1966, and later expanded in 1971 and 2013.
It should be noted GERD was not a Chinese project. It began in 2011 with funding from bonds issued by the Ethiopia government with a fraction of the budget obtained through international agents.
Contractors involved include Ethiopian and Italian companies ($4.8bn contract in 2011) who get the lion’s share of the contract money.
It should be noted Pompeo was not too pleased with Italy anyways as it was the first western European nation to sign a 2017 MOI with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Michael Pompeo was still Director of Central Intelligence at that time.
In all fairness, Secretary of State Pompeo did later warn Italy to not defy the imperial demands of the USA to not sign that MOI, but they did anyways. That the first COVID-19 virus appeared in Italy months before it was identified in Wuhan China is surely a (highly improbable) coincidence.
GERD is the third largest electric power project in the world. Only 57% of Ethiopians have access to electricity and that’s the second highest level in Sub-Saharan Africa. Those who think Ethiopians don’t need electricity should try living without it for a while.
China incidentally entered the GERD project late and in primarily a finance capacity.
“In February 2019, China Gezhouba Group Corporation Limited (CGGC) signed an agreement with EEP to invest $40.1m in the project. - The project is also backed by the Exim Bank of China.”
https://www.power-technology.com/projects/the-grand-renaissance-hydroelectric-project/
Africa Times newspaper led the story about the meeting between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and Former Secretary of State Pompeo as follows:
Ethiopia hosts Pompeo with economy, security top of mind, By AT editor - 19 February 2020
“United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Ethiopia’s progress on important economic reforms, but said there is much work to do on regional security as well as the unresolved impasse over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project…”
https://africatimes.com/2020/02/19/ethiopia-hosts-pompeo-with-economy-security-top-of-mind/
Ah! Mystery solved. Sort of. Clearly GERD is top on Michael Pompeo’s mind too. “No way are these jungle bunnies going to get electricity(!)” he must have been thinking. Unfortunately the US is not the only one on the list of suspects in an investigation of the murder of Chief Engineer Simegnew Bekele.
a) Motivation: List of Suspects
The US absolutely hates any project China is working on anywhere in the world, and so the CIA or more likely a subcontracted PMC is on the list of suspects (as discussed in Part 2 of this series).
The Egyptian government led by strongman Egypt President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi who, with American backing led the military's overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi is on the list. Anything that might influence Egypt’s water supply is important, and if murdering an engineer and influencing Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to halt construction, that’s fine. Deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi incidentally died in prison of medical neglect.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali is certainly is on this list because he sure wants to impress the Americans and his new gang of “friends.”
One might be remiss to fail to include Prince Mohammad bin Salman, given his role in the slaughter and ongoing humanitarian disaster in Yemen in addition to his role in the October 2 2018 dismemberment and murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. Many people are starving to death in Yemen, just as they are now in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. He can bankroll any project Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali likes and make him a “real star,” just like himself.
All of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s new pals want a strong foothold in East Africa, and Ethiopia is the chosen one at this time thanks to the gullibility of the new president. With friends like that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shouldn’t have to worry about anything, except perhaps, the people of Ethiopia who are going to universally hate him when the killing and rapes in Tigray end and people start exhuming and counting the bodies.
Ethiopia is not like anywhere else, and their Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is not like European Christianity. Having an Evangelical Prime Minister come in with a gang of cut-throat foreigners and launching a genocide in the most sacred land of Ethiopia, Tigray, of Axum fame, will not please them however much they may have despised the TPLF. The question is how much of now vacated Tigrayan land will the Prime Minister dole out to cronies from different ethnic groups to buy their support and forgiveness. That’s what Aung San Suu Kyi did in Myanmar and it worked out quite well – for a while – at least until the military coup.
As if African nations didn’t have enough problems Nobel Peace Prize winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has successfully imported the Middle East Wars to East Africa.
And then there’s Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is universally known for running the world’s largest prison camp often referred to as “Palestine.”
Netanyahu Seeks Security Cooperation with Ethiopia, By Space in Africa - September 4, 2019
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, seeks to boost bilateral security collaboration with Ethiopia, in what some analysts described as the Prime Minister’s move to strengthen Israel’s influence in Africa.
Netanyahu on Sunday met Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who was on an official visit to Jerusalem, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
During a joint press conference, Netanyahu told Ahmed: “We know that the first prerequisite of the government of any society is security. We are both being challenged. We’re being challenged by radical Islamic terrorists. They not only challenge us, but they also challenge the world”.
He also expressed Israel’s readiness to offer and share with Ethiopia, experiences which both countries have garnered “because of our unfortunate need to defend ourselves,” reports Middle East Monitor.
https://africanews.space/netanyahu-seeks-security-cooperation-with-ethiopia/
That is a chilling warning to anyone who stands in the way of imperial ambitions, and quite probably Ethiopian Muslims as well.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali appears to be the patsy, rather like Aung San Suu Kyi, a useful but disposable tool to halt Chinese led development projects by miring the nation in a civil war. Should the army eventually depose him, which is not out of the question, no doubt those who profited from inheriting Tigrayan lands and properties, and other American linked agents will “righteously” and loudly demonstrate in their thousands demanding democracy be restored, just like Myanmar.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali must be pleased sitting at the table with the big boys. Tragically Ethiopia as a nation and each rape and murder victim is paying the price for his ego ambitions and abject lack of humanity.
China is or at least was helping Ethiopia – the nation currently sitting on the butcher’s block - with critically important manufacturing facilities, transportation and energy production development projects that are desperately needed to help alleviate the crushing poverty that typifies most of Africa.
Naturally all of the above suspects are delighted with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali’s extreme gullibility. The slave markets around Africa and the Middle East are glutted with “slightly used” Tigrayan boys and girls at this time. This is a matter of no significance to Empire.
Weighing in on the above tragedy BBC reported:
Ethiopian engineer Simegnew Bekele 'took his own life', September 7, 2018
“Top Ethiopian engineer Simegnew Bekele, whose death from a bullet wound in July sparked a huge outcry, took his own life, police say. Mr Simegnew's body was found in a car in the main square of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. The engineer was in charge of the country's controversial multi-billion-dollar project to dam the Nile. Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in the wake of his death as some thought he had been murdered.
“The dam, which has been called the most ambitious infrastructure project ever achieved on the continent, was supposed to have been finished two years ago. Now, seven years into construction, it is only 65% complete, reports the BBC's Abebe Bayu. The project is also expected to go over its $4bn (£3.1bn) budget.
“Once built, the 1.8km (1.1 mile) wide and 155m (500ft 5in) high dam will triple the country's electricity production. But it has created geopolitical tension downstream on the Nile, with Egypt worried that the infrastructure project will put a strain on its water supply.”
One might note BBC, the premier newspaper of Empire is promoting the suicide theory, focusing on cost and time overruns and empathizing with Egypt.
If the Tweeter chat above is correct and the Prime Minister’s government really did “strip” the good chief Engineer Simegew of his security and chauffeur on the same day the PM belittled the project just before the murder, then the weight of evidence shifts towards him as the most probably suspect.
On the other hand, the real murderer might wish to spread a rumor on Twitter implicating the Prime Minister, so this must be taken “with a grain of salt,” as it lacks corroboration.
In evaluating all this one must also take into account Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali’s new foreign friends who are all accomplished and brazen murderers totally in bed with the world’s premier initiator of wars, the USA.
For all of the tragedy involved in the death of the widely admired Chief Ethiopian engineer Simegnew Bekele, even greater tragedies continue to unfold in Ethiopia.
That Prime Minister Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was warned by his defence minister Lemma Megersa (Part 1 of this series) against reorganizing the government at that time is also an indicator something is wrong there.
Could the attacks on government installations in the Tigray region the night of November 3, 2020 have been a false flag operations by the government itself, or a third party such as the US, Egyptians, Eritreans or Sudanese? The answer to that may take time or never be known.
a) Methods
Intimidation and threats
America Has No Allies, Only Hostages, by Caitlin Johnstone, October 21, 2020
…“‘Now some people say there’s an alternative: you can go with China,’ said (John) Mearsheimer. ‘Right, you have a choice here: you can go with China rather the United States. There are two things I’ll say about that. Number one, if you go with China you want to understand you are our enemy. You are then deciding to become an enemy of the United States. Because again, we’re talking about an intense security competition.
‘You're either with us or against us,” he continued. “And if you're trading extensively with China, and you’re friendly with China, you’re undermining the United States in this security competition. You’re feeding the beast, from our perspective. And that is not going to make us happy. And when we are not happy you do not want to underestimate how nasty we can be. Just ask Fidel Castro.”
American political analyst John Mearsheimer at a debate hosted by the Australian think tank Center for Independent Studies held at: Mearsheimer Australian Center for Independent Studies
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/10/21/america-has-no-allies-only-hostages
Later on in that same interview Mr. Mearsheimer went on to add:
(51:16) You understand, we’re trying to wreck the Chinese economy… We do not want them growing over the next 30 years the way they’ve grown over the past 30 years. So, you’re gonna help feed the beast? You’re going to trade with China and basically just ignore us? I don’t think that’s going to work out too well.
In that interview Mr. Mearsheimer confessed intent to commit a number of very serious felonies, crimes against humanity and violations of international treaties. His threats are consistent with a pattern of international racketeering as defined in American law and a violation of many laws, rules and agreements of the WTO.
And who exactly is John J. Mearsheimer?
“John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He graduated from West Point in 1970 and then served five years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.” https://political-science.uchicago.edu/directory/john-mearsheimer
In a “rules based” world it is astonishing he remains free to engage in such high crimes without censure or arrest.
Tragically, due to American disregard for all domestic and international laws and codes of morality and honor, that is just the way “good ol’ boy” plantation owners think and act. They are “plain speaking,” yet their unabashed arrogance is simultaneously one of their major weaknesses.
The CIA did try to kill Fidel Castro a number of times and is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to destroy China’s economy. Though not an elected official of the United States, Mr. Mearsheimer speaks on behalf of the United States. He is a respected member of the American elite who in a world governed by laws would be arrested in the US under the auspices of the RICO laws or held for trial in the Hague. Thus, threats are a useful way to get compliance from whichever party initiated the violence on November 3rd, 2020.
a) US, Britain, the European Union, Eritrean and possibly Egyptian complicity in Oromo Ethnonationalist ascension, genocide and mass raping of Tigrayans
It appears Tigrayans are not the only targets.
Attacks are being committed mainly in the west of the country, but in other areas as well, against the Amhara people, by ‘rebels’; code for the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) — a breakaway armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), founded in the 1970s to fight for the self-determination of ethnic Oromo. The ethnically based killings, destruction of property, rapes and displacement of persons, constitute what some Ethiopians claim is genocide. This is reinforced by Genocide Watch, who have issued a Genocide warning “for Ethiopia due to the government’s inaction to stop ethnically motivated violence between Oromo, Amhara, Tigrayan and Gedeo peoples.” The situation throughout the country is unstable and complex; ethnic identities are strong and long-standing differences between groups are easily enflamed by malicious forces, inside and outside Ethiopia. There is speculation that Egypt (angry with Ethiopia over the construction and control of the Renaissance Dam) is supporting the OLA with arms, and that the ‘rebel’ group is working with the TPLF, with the aim of destabilizing the country ahead of general elections in June. Elections postponed from 2020 that the incumbent party (the newly formed Prosperity Party) under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, are expected to win.
The extreme sexual violence of the Eritrean military is another provocation. Echoes of both Bosnian and Myanmar’s genocides are equally in evidence in Tigray, now.
Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Warnings of genocide and famine, By Alex de Waal, Africa analyst, May 29, 2021
The patriarch of Ethiopia's Orthodox Church recently ignited controversy when he said that genocide was being committed in the northern Tigray region. His Holiness Abune Matthias - an ethnic Tigrayan himself - explained that since the outbreak of conflict in November between the Ethiopian military and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), his ‘mouth had been sealed, unable to speak from fear.’ Abune Matthias’ emotional statement resonated with many Tigrayans, who are deeply traumatized by the violence in their region. More than two million people have been displaced in the conflict.
“Ethnic cleansing and terrorism,” have been going on in Tigray since November – for more than seven months now unabated.
According to Ayantu Ayana, a writer of Oromo Ethiopian origin and now a U.S. citizen “the US goal is to have a militarily powerful central Ethiopian government that serves their interests in the Horn of Africa. They are not concerned with the wellbeing of Ethiopian citizens or peoples. The TPLF served US interests in the Horn of Africa for 27 years, but finally, thanks to grassroots movements, the US saw that the TPLF faced too much domestic opposition to serve their purpose any longer. Then they switched their support to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.” https://blackagendareport.com/ethiopia-civil-war-and-nation-building-21st-century
This may be true, but the USA did not cut its ties within the leadership of the TPLF either and most probably played both sides against each. “Wind them both (the TPLF and Unity party of the Prime Minister) up and launch them at each other,” the colonialists say with wild laughter.
In sum, what we have is an Oromo powerplay backed by the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Eritrea accompanied by extreme provocations of the Tigrayans, followed by a human slaughter and mass raping of the Tigrayans.
According to the Facebook page of the Office of Prime Minister Abiy, he’s pushing a concept called #MEDEMER which claims to be:
“An idea that seeks to address the deficit in a new social, political, economic and foreign relations orientation.
And,
#MEDEMER – National Pride, Strong Democracy, Equitable Benefit-Sharing….
One comment by Elo Oneplus reads as follows:
“I am puzzled…
“If Medemder is an Ethiopian solution for Ethiopians by Ethiopians, the theme color has to include some of the three colors, Green yellow and red.
“Looking at the logo for Medemder, one notices, green is absent.”
Why? Possibly because the logo was made in Langley Virginia or Madison Avenue?
For all practical purposes US, Britain and the European Union set the Tigrayan TPLF up for this, certainly did not offer the kind of diplomatic support when it could have prevented this travesty of extreme violence, and thus are complicit in it.
Like all such regimes, they ruled through fear and division and were widely despised in the country and among the Ethiopian diaspora, but to there utter shame, western nations, including Ethiopia’s primary donors (and therefore the countries with the greatest influence) the US, Britain and the European Union, supported them. Consecutive western leaders, most notably Tony Blair and Barak Obama, not only failed to call out the regime’s atrocities, but were complicit, hailing corrupt elections as fair, legitimizing the results of one stolen election after another. And now, when Ethiopia is being assailed by criminal gangs, domestic terrorists masquerading as ‘freedom fighters’, and many believe, foreign interference, they stand by and do nothing.
Individuals within the leadership of the TPLF who committed financial and other crimes should be charged and tried for those crimes, instead, innocent Tigrayan citizens are being punished with mass gang rapes, mutilations and murders while the foreign defenders of the corrupt walk away silently and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is just letting it happen, precisely the same game plan as Aung San Suu Kyi.
This is a perfect kind of solution to problems in Ethiopia from an American point of view, as they will have a hungry market for weapons for years to come as the TPLF has regrouped in the hinterlands and will remain a large and dangerous force for years to come. Money to finish a dam? Forget it. They have a war to fight now.
Prolonged chaos and violence are the desired outcome of American covert actions in most countries.
In 2019 the Eritrean Minister of information made some surprising revelations perhaps giving some clue as to why things have unfolded as they have during the past year.
Eritrea Blames CIA for 2011 Acts of Subversion, November 20, 2019 , An exclusive interview with Eritrea’s Minister of Information
A few days ago, the Eritrean Ministry of Information published documents that would prove the involvement of the CIA (the US secret services), Mossad (the Israeli secret services) and some NGOs in a series of activities aimed at boycotting Eritrea. Activities that, they say in Asmara, led to a long isolation which had the objective of weakening a country, which had been engaged for years in a difficult border war with Ethiopia. After the peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea, signed last year by the Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and the new winner of the Nobel for peace, the young Ethiopian leader, Abiy Ahmed, relations between the two countries have returned to normal and this has allowed a relaxation of relations both throughout the Horn of Africa and between Asmara, Washington and Brussels.
There is a great deal of evidence the US is promoting extremely violent ethnonationalist movements in other countries as well.
Examples include the UK’s Brexit, the rise of ethnonationalist parties in Afghanistan, India, Turkey, Ukraine,Hungary, Poland, Brazil, and the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.
https://altnewsreview.substack.com/p/us-promotion-of-afghan-pashtun-ethnonationalism
And thus, the CIA’s mission of causing conflict and violent death is accomplished, and Trump, Biden, Pompeo and Blinken can smile about another lesson taught to the “savages” on the “dark” continent: DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH CHINA!
Trump, Biden, Pompeo and Blinken, the majority in Congress and the Senate, in addition to corporate CEOs in the defense industry, and the leadership in think tanks, and councils and other top officials in the intelligence community really believe they are the plantation owners of entire continents and all African people are nothing more than their slaves, with whom they can do whatever they like.
Because the Black press in the USA is owned primarily by Black middle class, they are mainly interested in their own well-being and will not address international issues.
One online newspaper however, https://blackagendareport.com does find very clear and obvious parallels and overlaps between American domestic and international racism.
The American, Saudi, Israeli and Hindutva leadership are on the same page when it comes to enslaving target populations. They use the same playbook as the British, and French have for centuries.
Note: The email version of this article stops about here. For full draft, download from: https://www.silkroadvirtualuniversity.org/publications-by-gcb.html
a) Bribery and treachery – Undermining the people’s confidence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
Sanctions
When one hangs out with those who either are billionaires, or who appear to have access to infinite money, it’s pretty difficult to draw the line between a business investment and a bribe, just as in the US it’s apparently too difficult for the legislature and courts to figure out exactly what constitutes quid pro quo.
As mentioned in the summary of Part 2 of this series, the US offered a sweet deal to MP Abiy to finance a contractwith a consortium of companies to fund Ethiopia’s 5G network, provided Chinese telecoms are locked out. Then the next day slapped sweeping sanctions on Ethiopia. As a follow up to that, and possibly germane to an investigation into Chief Engineer Simegew Bekele’s murder, we find:
2021.05.27 US Moves against Ethiopia and Eritrea: Atrocities Alleged, Sanctions Imposed by Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor - US hostilities towards Ethiopia and Eritrea look more and more like those preceding US wars in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Syria, writes Ann Garrison. On May 20, the US Senate passed Senate Resolution 97 calling on the Government of Ethiopia, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, and other belligerents in the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow unfettered humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of credible atrocity allegations." The resolution also called on neighboring Eritrea to withdraw troops from Ethiopia. On May 21, Cameron Hudson told Foreign Policy , “This is a major strategic shift in the Horn of Africa, to go from an anchor state for U.S. interests to become a potential adversary to U.S. interests.” Hudson self-describes on Twitter as former CIA, State Department, and White House staff, now with the Atlantic Council. On May 23, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued a statement announcing sanctions on both Ethiopia and Eritrea, including official travel restrictions and aid cuts, most of which targeted Ethiopia, which receives the largest share of US aid in Sub-Saharan Africa. https://blackagendareport.com/us-moves-against-ethiopia-and-eritrea-atrocities-alleged-sanctions-imposed
a) Summary
I have friends from both Tigray and in Addis. Naturally the Tigrayans blame Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali entirely. Also, he is not that popular with many among the Oromo and Amhara many of whom are upset that Eritreans are being given license to commit extreme atrocities in Tigray. Though the news is largely censored in Ethiopia, some truths cannot be contained in a place as small as Addis Ababa.
It is possible at some point in the future Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali may be held to account for failing to prevent the seven-month genocide still burning in Tigray. It’s astonishing that the mainstream western press is still singing his praises and the international community is doing nothing whatsoever to end the violence.
The only questions are a) when will the horror end(?) and b) will the ICC ever start to fulfill its mandate, and charge and prosecute those foreigners who promoted and manipulated Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali every step of the way to the ongoing atrocities in Tigray?
Ethiopia isn’t simply an ancient land. It is a holy land and the people take spiritualism very seriously. For example, the fasting regime of the Ethiopian Church is the strictest of any Church, with 180 mandatory fasting days for laymen and up to 252 days for clergy and the particularly observant. Those fasts generally involve abstinence from meat and most ordinary citizens follow those guidelines. For many this is by necessity as they can’t afford meat anyways, and due to a lack of electricity can’t store meat either. Most Ethiopians only eat meat on holidays because of those kinds of practical considerations. Thus, spiritualism is fused with the “virtue of poverty.”
Finally who murdered beloved Chief Engineer Simegew Bekele? As far as this writer is concerned, all of the suspects probably had a hand in it in one way or another. The United Nations also bears culpability because if they did their job in the first place none of this would have happened.
The next article, Part 4 in this series looks at some of the ancient historical, spiritual and religious traditions of Ethiopia and the supreme injustices that are being done to the extraordinary people of this ancient holy land.
For links to all four articles in this series and other writings by the author, see:
https://www.silkroadvirtualuniversity.org/publications-by-gcb.html
Esteemed reader: Please be so kind as to help me help others. Thank you.