Ethiopia: Talking Trash, Speaking Truth(Huffington Post_

The interesting thing about the EU EOM Report is that it is as balanced as any report compiled by an independent group of observers following specific guidelines could reasonably be. I concede that grudgingly because I have a lot of bones to pick with the Report. I could rattle off 41 objections to the report in one breath. For instance, I believe the Report could have been more resolute in its findings and conclusions about the rampant irregularities and illegalities on election day and the days immediately preceding that. The Report could have comprehensively documented the massive diversion of aid for political purposes. The Report could have responded more aggressively in verifying and pursuing opposition complaints of pre-election harassment and voter intimidation on election day, and so on....more...

Why Are We Supporting Repression in Ethiopia? (NYR)

Indeed, many aid officials interviewed in the Human Rights Watch report admit that they were aware of these abuses. As one western donor official said, “Every tool at [the government’s] disposal—fertilizer, loans, safety net—is being used to crush the opposition. We know this.” Yet the umbrella group representing 26 donors in Ethiopia (the Donors Assistance Group, or DAG), suggests that aid agencies intend to continue more or less with business as usual. Their overall response has been to reject the conclusions of the Human Rights Watch report, noting that, in their own research, they have not found “any evidence of systematic or widespread distortion.”...read more...

Is humanitarian aid bad for Africa? ( The Globe and Mail)

In 1991, the rebel army won the war and its leader, a polished tyrant named Meles Zenawi, took power. He soon became chummy with Mr. Geldof and many Western leaders. Bill Clinton hailed him as one of the “new breed” of African leaders. With Tony Blair, he co-authored a high-profile report in 2005, released at the time of the famous G8 meeting at Gleneagles, where Mr. Geldof and Bono cranked the heat up with their Make Poverty History campaign. Most people politely glossed over the recent election in Ethiopia, which featured massive fraud, violence, intimidation and imprisonment of political opponents. More recently, in 2008, the Meles regime brutally put down a Somali rebellion. Human Rights Watch accused government forces of torture, torching villages and other war crimes.
Mr. Meles has an explanation for all this. As he told Mr. Gill, Ethiopia will have to stay undemocratic until the important work of development is done. ..read more...

Ethiopia's Zenawi and the Willing Stooges ...(Nazret)

....If however you stay the course, and continue terrorizing opposition parties and their leaders, and keep the armed forces and the federal government as exclusive Tigrean entities diluted with few lackeys for good measure, if you keep masking your inner vulnerability by overreacting with disastrous consequences, if you keep using foreign aid, on the one hand, as a weapon against the poor and the peasants inside country forcing them to support your rule, and on the other hand, use the rest of the foreign funds to bribe the diaspora for image building and glorification purposes with fictional development and non-existent prosperities, you live in the land of fantasy. And you will deceive no one, but yourself!
So, Mr. Zenawi, the choice is yours. Either reverse the disastrous trend, or keep deceiving yourself. As we learned from the bleak history of so many tyrants, including Mengistu, your predecessor, time is not on your side!...read the whole article...