A friendly advice to Donald Payne and Co.

                              Dibaba Regasa,10/18/07

Some countries, forces, human rights groups, pundits, the media and others who oppose Bush’s invasion of Iraq were looking for other hot spots to prove Bush’s another failure. They are on a crusade to vilify any country that has associated itself with the US. It is true that US’s invasion of Iraq is against international law and was planned by the neo- cons who have miserably failed in their mission. Neo- cons are not popular any more and they never were. Their narrow anti-terror war has created more terrorism around the globe. The main crusaders are now abandoning Bush and are now engaged in a blame game. They were only concerned about a single agenda and were never far sighted about the consequences. Now Iraq is in Chaos and there seems to be no exit strategy what so ever.Their global anti-terror crusade was based on fabricated allegations on iraq.This is now a big campaign issue in the US.The recent surge is not working and the administration is now contemplating to withdraw from Iraq.

Some Democrat Congress men,media and pundits in the US and Europe who want to demonize Bush because of its failure in Iraq have now shifted their attention to Ethiopia.Why Ethiopia? Don’t get me wrong,they do not care about Ethiopia.However, the anti –Bush forces  think now that there is another Bush’s failure in the war against terror in the Horn of Africa.They think that Ethiopia is conducting a proxy war for the US.Instead of looking into empirical evidences why Ethiopia felt threatened by the Extremist forces in Somalia,they deliberately undermined the threat and are now engaged in anti-Bush-Ethiopia campaign.This is not because they are misinformed or due to Ethiopia’s PR problem in informing the world about the danger of the terrorists in Somalia.

Starting from August 2006,Ethiopia has been alarming the world that international and domestic terrorists are assembled in Somalia with the help of Alqaida.Terrorists from twenty nine countries were in Somalia. The  terrorists openly declared jihad on Ethiopia,made a threat to annex the Somali region of Ethiopia by force(greater Somalia concept which includes part of Djibouti and Kenya), gave a safe haven to OLF and ONLF and finally they allowed Eritrea to destabilize the region by conducting a proxy war against Ethiopia. That was a real national security threat. Ethiopia is not fighting US’s war in Somalia. This was communicated in clear words by Ethiopia to the UIC leadership in several discussions held with them before Ethiopia took military action.Ethiopia was also invited by the TFG which is supported by IGAD,UN,US,EU and AU and there fore Ethiopia’s intervention was in line with international law.

 Congress man Donald Payne and others   who teamed up to demonize Ethiopia is a case that must be scrutinized by the US foreign policy establishment seriously because it will create a bad precedence for future US policies.

They want to attack Ethiopia to gain some votes in the upcoming presidential election.Mr. Payne does not seem to care about the instability created by the terrorists and the rogue regime in Eritrea.He knows that destabilizing forces in the Horn are assembled in Eritrea.Seven armed Ethiopian opposition groups,ten armed Sudanese opposition groups and  Al Itihad terrorists are trained and based in Eritrea.The Congress man can get this information from the US embassy in Asmara.Why should he bother any way.His agenda is  unambiguous.He wants to bash Bush and Ethiopia on partisan grounds.Like the neo- cons who had a narrow anti-terror agenda and who are failing miserably,  he is also pursuing a narrow agenda of winning an election by ignoring important US foreign policy interests. He should know that Ethiopia is an asset to the US. He also should know at this difficult times of anti –terror war, the US is a liability to Ethiopia.

What the Congress man should know is that the Ethiopian government is not a human rights abuser and  is not hiding behind the anti-terror war eventhough it has major challenges ahead in democratization.The Ethiopian Government is trying its best to democratize the country. It does not need to hide it self any where.

 ONLF which is engaged in terrorizing its own people has been told to refrain from violence several times but to no avail.The people of the Somali region and the Ethiopian defence forces are now making good progress in weakening the terrorist groups.Do not worry please as there are no rapes,burning villages and denying food to the people by Ethiopian defence forces.They are conducting a clean operation.

 Ethiopia has a modern, peace loving and accommodative government that is determined to alleviate poverty and install good governance in the country. Even though Ethiopia has a young democracy and a tough road ahead, it is on the right track. Donald Payne  and Co. should know that Ethiopia is now a big country that can not be pushed around by   congress men with sinister motives. Ethiopia is now a stabilizing force in the region and has a promising economic future.  The new Millennium has created a situation where the people and government have promised not to look back but forward. Above all, Ethiopia, however poor,is a sovereign country. Help us Congress men in realizing the millennium dream instead of becoming a mouth piece of hate groups and destabilizing forces who pretend to be democrats in the corridors of Capitol Hill.

Since the passing of the destructive HR 2003 in the full house is a result of Payne’s narrow agenda, there are several Senators who have openly said that the bill is a non- starter (dead on arrival).Although the bill had passed unanimously in the full house, the republican and Democrat congress men who voted for the bill were not aware of the damage to Ethiopia and the US interests and are urging the Senators not to vote for it when the bill goes to the senate floor.

Finally we have reached an era where Ethiopia is becoming a power to reckon with in the region not because of its military might but because of its economic development, good governance, educated population, a stabilizing anchor country, far sighted leadership.Ethiopia must be handled carefully now.

Donald Payne and Co. should advise their friends (Eritrean government, UIC,ONLF,OLF,CUD in the Diaspora) to accept Ethiopia’s offer of reconciliation, tolerance and dialogue in the new millennium. There is no other way.Donald Payne and  Co. should look now at the big picture and they should not  be fooled by partisan interests. We hope the Senators are listening too.