Why is the Opposition Media Shy from Reporting OLF/EPLF Terror Plot?
When the UN investigative report showed OLF/EPLF was plotting an act of terror in Addis Ababa posted Thursday, July 29, 2011on the rest of international internet websites, the bias and server of a small circle of elites of the opposition media inside Ethiopia and in the Diaspora this time again shy away from reporting the findings of the UN report. I am talking about Addis Voice, Ethioforum.org and Abugida.com, Abbay Media, EDADF and their similar outlets,
The UN officially issued an investigative report showing the Eritrean ፋሉል (Law less - anarchy) Isyas Afewerki of Eritrea through its mercenary foot soldier called OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) was behind the terror plotted to explode a bomb during the African Union summit. Reuters news agency in short summarized its report obtained from U.N. as the following
{NAIROBI (Reuters) - Eritrea was behind a plot to attack an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January and is bankrolling al Qaeda-linked Somali rebels through its embassy in Kenya, according to a U.N. report.
A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea said the Red Sea state's intelligence personnel were active in Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia, and that the country's actions posed a threat to security and peace in the region.
"Whereas Eritrean support to foreign armed opposition groups has in the past been limited to conventional military operations, the plot to disrupt the African Union summit in Addis Ababa in January 2011, which envisaged mass casualty attacks against civilian targets and the strategic use of explosives to create a climate of fear, represents a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics," the report obtained by Reuters said.
The plan was to attack the AU headquarters with a car bomb as African leaders took breaks, to blow up Africa's largest market to "kill many people" and attack the area between the Prime Minister's office and the Sheraton Hotel -- where most heads of state stay during AU summits.}
This report clearly shows what the FALUL’s/ ፋሉል foot soldiers (OLF) caught red handed planning to carry explosion terror as it did many times in the past in order to spread terror across the East Africa mainly targeting Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
All along, I as individual concerned Ethiopian argued for years with some of the noisy Ethiopian opposition political parties (who are located inside the country or in the Diaspora) their media and including some individual journalists like that of the deluded Eskender Negga (the new OLF propagandist) tried to give a cover to OLF/EPLF/ONLF any time terror plot exposed by TPLF intelligence services in the country blindly accusing TPLF as creation of its own plot or as the perpetrator of the terror.
Remember years back, one of the popular website editor who is the EPLF/OLF/ONLF die hard supporter urged Somali terrorists and OLF/ONLF terror group to bomb hotels, installations while guests, children, elders still there (he doesn’t care as long as these terrorists blow hotels or government installations, telephone, power, water…while innocent thousands of workers and guest are still there as long as it satisfy his ego seeing people dying, body and limbs cut off).
Now, by what imagination are you the people going to count some of these oppositions and their media as genuine Ethiopian political opposition or as decent and unbiased patriotic journalists?
This week, except Ethiomedia, Ethiolion, Assimba - the rest of the Addis Voice, EFM, ECADF, Abbbay Media, Abugida and their little other outlets and chat rooms ignored to copy and paste the news from UN or Reuters. You ask to yourself why? The answer is very clear, for years these media editors and their elite and bias writers were posting commentaries on their media sites accusing TPLF as fabricator of the plot regardless ample evidence mounted against those terror groups. Let alone, to hold accountable those mentioned above terrorist groups as plotters of the terror. To our surprise, they were posting OLF/ONLF military expedition victory , their press and their news and articles, audio video to brainwash the public as positive freedom fighters while never showed a report of audio video of their terror act or report or commentary. (Regarding this video I am talking about, please read one of the TPLF die hard supporter’s commentary about OLF below at the end of this article- disregard his TPLF’s view, just read the valid points he raised about OLF fighters and leaders)
If you can, you ask them why they are in love too much with such deluded and terrorist groups if they can tell you why. I doubt they will, but except they will tell you it is only TPLF who plots or carry act of terror, simply because they hate TPLF (my enemy’s enemy is my friend kind of policy- that is why you see them going hand to hand touring together).
The issue, that this kind of nonsensical accusation of the plot as TPLF made work from the opposition media and their journalists is not at one or two occasion/s, it is always, all the time. Anytime OLF/ONLF/EPLF’ s terror mission exposed- these opposition and their so called journalists are out there doing a cover up job for those terrorists dismissing no mission of terror was expedite except applying the terror as TPLF fabrication.
This week, I had a chance to exchange email with analyst and legal scholar about this issue, he told me outright, “a truly committed opposition looking after the interest of the poor people of Ethiopia is not there”.
How one could dismiss his conclusion when assessing the deaf ear of the opposition or silence with such issue or their friendly dedication they showed to these terror groups?
We all are anti TPLF, but when the country and its people are attacked by any group, it is be better reacting or at least stay away from accusing TPLF as the fabricator of the plot to “free” the terrorists from the act of crime. That is the most dangerous rout of collaboration of crime for a political group to follow.
Honestly speaking, there are hundreds of real causes with reliable evidence to accuse TPLF as terror group if one wants to focus on such, but to dismiss the work of OLF/ONLF/EPLF terror plot as hoax of TPLF is a blatant betrayal of the Ethiopia people and siding with enemies. Not only it cheap politics, but collaborative, hiding and abiding criminals in political cover up for self serve purposes.
It is sad that these are journalist and political leaders, commentators, researchers with education label of BA, MA and PhD, who failed to see things as they are! Some are trained journalists who serve TPLF, or went to school of journalism miserably failed in front of our eye to address issues as they are! For these journalists to help their eye to see things as they are, they need Jesus’ spittle rubbed on their eye. They have eyes, but can’t see (of course some are not blind- but they are foreign agents planted to fool the many fools of you out there!).
Now, the Ethiopian people must ask “why are the opposition media and their journalists and commentators shy from reporting that now the OLF is caught in the act of terror orchestrated by its master Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea according to the U.N. report? It is sad now that we have two enemies to focus- one is the “political opposition groups and some journalists who are foreign agents”, and the other one is “TPLF government”. That means, you have two sophisticated groups of liars to expose.
Dear Ethiopians:
“these is the dilemma you are facing now!” it is up to you to let your country played by these opportunists and power hungry petit elites or stand up and face them the way your ancestors thought you- “TO SEE THINGS AS THE ARE!!!” www.ethiopiansemay.blogspot.com
Read the following commentary by TPLF supporter “OLF ON Its Dying Bed”. Disregard the writer’s own support for TPLF, just take some valid arguments he stated about who OLF and its status. Professor Getachew Begashaw and the leaders of the Ginbot 7 Berhanu Nega and the anti Amhara Oromo ethnic Andargachew Tsige could learn something from this reality. This commentary is old , but the reality is still true.
Comments on NTV and OLF "army" in Ethiopia
Gemeda Humnasa 08/12/09
The OLF has become so weak and insignificant in the Oromo nation, that it did not deserve this article. But after over 15 years since we last heard of OLF "in action," this week the Kenyan Media NTV reported on it and i decided to give some comments about it.
As an Oromo, I felt sorry for the NTV journalist who appeared to know very little basic facts and current events in the Oromo community. Some of NTV journalist Yassin Juma's funny comments include saying Oromos are over 40 Million in population and over 50% of Ethiopia. Unfortunately, He missed the facts by over 10 million. Mr. Yassin also implied Oromos don't have or get education and the chance to speak their language in Ethiopia, from his "interviews" in the video. Once again, facts were not his side. Ironically, Oromos make up the largest student population in Ethiopia today and as we have also seen the drastic growth in new colleges and universities, the Meles Zenawi governent has built over 8 times more state universities than all previous Ethiopian governments combined. Again ironically, the Meles Zenawi government is the first government in history to promote Afan Oromo language, literature, culture, with thousands of new books published in Qubee Afan Oromo under Meles era.
The NTV journalists made many mistakes collecting information about Ethiopia but the NTV documentary has more meaning to all of us than we think. Even though, Mr. Yassin Juma made many factual mistakes about Ethiopia during his NTV "documentary," his videos actually hurted OLF more than it helped it.
OLF on its dying bed
Even though, the NTV documentary made a mistake by advertising about a terrorist organization the way it did, the NTV videos also exposed 3 important facts about the OLF.
1) With around 36-fighters left, the OLF has the smallest "army" in world history
2) OLF has become a criminal organization with records of killings, massacres (even inside Kenya)
3) OLF's leadership is divided and broken beyond repair.
1.
Looking at the video, if i was Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, i would have written a THANK YOU letter to NTV. Why? The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a movement that once had tens of thousands of men and wome fighters, have been left with one woman and about 35 men. This is one of the most embarassing videos for the OLF. But it also shows the achievements of Meles Zenawi, his ethnic federalism system and the improving economic policies. It shows that under the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO) leadership, Oromo people have gained autonomy, self-rule and progress even if many challenges remain.
After over 36 years of fighting in the forest and desert, the OLF has been left with about 36 fighters. This translates to one fighter per a year to an organization claiming to represent around 30 million Oromo population worldwide. If we calculate these numbers to see the percentage of Oromos fighting for OLF ( 36 divided by 30 Million) we are looking at less than 0.00012% of the global Oromo population actually working on the ground for the OLF. This is what the OLF has achieved after almost 40 years now. If anyone that is reading my article is interested, i would ask you to please contact the Guinness book of World Records because the OLF might have actually broken the world record with this above ratio of population to a "liberation movement" [Qabsoo bilisummaa Oromoo (QBO)]
2.
The second fact the NTV unintentionally exposed is how criminal the OLF has become over the years. In its videos, the NTV broadcasted about the massacres committed by the OLF terrorists even in northern Kenya. The OLF has always attempted to deny these accusations by diverting attention to the TPLF, but this time, the accusations come from Kenya and OLF has no credible answer. The OLF has been responsible for many other massacres over the years, including the Bagalla massacre, Arba Guugu massacre, Asosa massacre and Bodeno massacre. Desperate groups take desperate measures.
In the NTV film, the naive journalist asked one of the OLF commanders about the massacres and as expected he did not know about it. That was no surprise since the OLF has a leadership crisis while the foot soldiers on the ground die in mass. The OLF chairman is Dawud Ibsa, not Kemal Gelchu as the NTV journalist said. In fact, the Diaspora-based Dawud Ibsa OLF group did not even like the NTV broadcasting about the OLF because of the power struggle inside the OLF leadership. Obviously, if you ask a pro-Kemal Gelchu commander on the ground about a massacre committed by OLF many years ago when Dawud Ibsa was a top leader, the commander is not going to know anything what happened at that time.
But whatever the case, the NTV exposed once again the crimes of the OLF leaders and its gunmen in the horn of Africa over the years. Will the OLF leaders face justice for their crimes? Will pro-OLF Oromos condemn these crimes by OLF or are pro-OLF Oromos hypocrites about human rights? Will the international community hold responsible leaders of violent armed groups (like OLF) in exile? These are the questions we are left with.
3.
This also brings us to the third fact about the OLF, which is that it has been broken apart into pieces and it is beyond repair. Go to the "official" OLF website of Dawud Ibsa and you would not see the NTV documentary that talks about OLF movement in the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
If the fact that OLF has just a few dozen fighters left on the ground was not embarrassing enough, the OLF leaders are even worse by fighting eachother to get their hands on the "throne" for the leftovers (terefrafi.)
Somali Pattern in foreign media
Knowing who the journalists and their backers are, often tells us what motivated them to take up on unusual projects (like this NTV documentary on OLF.) The NTV journalist Yassin Juma is from the Somali ethnic group and he claimed Ethiopia is also fighting the ONLF due to the "colonial history." According to the Germany media DPA, the Somali Mr. Yassin Juma is "a Kenyan journalist who covers Somalia and the Somali community in Kenya."
Most of us Oromos know about some of the expansionist Somali armed groups like the Somali Abbo Liberation Front (SALF) which tried to annex Oromia into "GREATER SOMALIA" in the 1980s. Due to their patriotic efforts, many Oromos were killed trying to defend their territories in Bale and Arsi from the invading Somalis. Oromo Ethiopians defeated the SALF in many occassions but reminants of the Somali invasion are still visible in Somali conquered lands as Somali gunmen still target innocent Oromo civilians today.
In general, the Somali journalist Mr. Yassin is likely to have been motivated by his personal agenda against Ethiopia and if the independent and much respected Kenyan managers inside the NTV did not block Yassin, he could have actually used the media in other destructive ways.
It is not the first time that a Somali journalist with political agenda tried to use foreign and international media to attack Ethiopia. The Somali Mr. Mohammed Adow of Al Jazeera program also used his journalist job to pursue his political agenda and reported on the ONLF terrorists labeling them as liberators from colonization and comparing Ogaden to Darfur. To add insult to injury, Mr. Mohammed spoke of abuses by Ethiopian government after the ONLF terrorists massacred dozens of Ethiopians and Chinese. Thus, we patriotic Ethiopians should be aware of such political use of the media against our country.
Eritrea's role
In the video, the NTV journalist reveals how the Eritrean government actually communicated with him and guided him, even giving the Kenyan journalist old videos of OLF rebels training in Eritrea. So we all know these propaganda videos were part of the Eritrean one-party government scheme. The Eritrean "ambassador" in Nairobi was left speechless after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exposed the Asmara regime to the world and then he tried to coverup Eritrea's indirect role in the NTV documentary despite the naive NTV journalists themselves mentioning Eritrea's role in the OLF training camps in Eritrea seen in the videos. All of us remember those repetitious videos of OLF in Eritrea from the propaganda films on Eri-TV, the Asmara based TV station.
For those foreign people who don't know about Eri-TV, it is one of the least informative state-run television channels in the world, that has bored Eritreans to death. I would not be surprised if some of the hundreds of Eritreans fleeing out of Eritrea every month was because they couldn't stand another minute of Eri-TV and were just having enough of it. But on a serious note, Eri-TV is very famous for "mocking" the Ethiopian government every day by using video clips of Ethiopian opposition parliamentarians criticizing Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. That is always ironic because the Eritrean dictator Isayas allows no parliament, no opposition party, no elections, no constitution and certainly no Eritrean there to criticize him. The Eri-TV is also famous for broadcasting funny videos of fighters in Eritrean desert to appear as if they are in Ethiopia, conquering regions after regions in Ethiopia and so, according to this Eritrean TV station, "woyane is almost finished" everyday the last 10 years. (Woyane=nickname for Ethiopian ruling party branch)
So It is not surprising that Eritrea helped the NTV journalist Yassin Juma and the Eritrean version of OLF led by "Chairman" Kemal Gelchu was promoted in the NTV documentary while the real OLF "leader" Dawud Ibsa was ignored. The ill-informed NTV journalist said he "finally" got a reply from the OLF after "three years" of trying to reach them. Little did he know that the OLF he was contacted by three years ago is actually different from the OLF he was contacted by this year.
Today, the Eritrean regime is facing a bipartisan condemnation from Washington D.C. as the new Obama administration has rebuked the state-sponsored terrorism of Asmara, even more than the Bush administration did. Having failed to win with the al Shabab and ONLF, the Eritrean dictatorship is trying to stay alive using the "army" of the 36-men "strong" OLF terrorists. But even most Diaspora supporters of OLF are staying away from the Eritrean regime because of its connections with the al Shabaab terrorists wanted by the CIA. But dictator Isayas is working overtime many hours a day to survive, as all his neighbors, most Eritreans and the international community continue to rebuke him. The Eritrean Eri-TV is the remaining weapon dictator Isayas has to keep some diehard OLF supporters brainwashed. Ironically, the Eri-TV entertains its OLF Oromo guests in Asmara by illegally copying videos of our Oromo singers and videos from Ethiopia (ETV). Why would Eri-TV advertise the successes of Meles Zenawi government by showing Oromo cultural and music videos from Ethiopia? Nobody knows. But in general, the resources for OLF members in Eritrea are drying up quickly as the Eritrean regime (worst economic performer in Africa) continues to suffer under economic crisis while trying to hide the starvation in Eritrea. (United Nations(UN) previously reported that around 67% of Eritreans face severe starvation but most NGOs are not allowed there) *
Conclusion
The NTV documentary about the OLF fighters on the ground have been a big boost to OPDO in the Diaspora. With just 0.00012% of Oromos actually fighting for the OLF cause, the OLF has actually provided a new extreme definition of the word "minority." It appears that the OLF has been rejected by Oromos more than we originally thought.
After nearly 40 years, OLF can only show us a few dozen fighters stranded along the Kenya-Ethiopia open border, singing in Oromo language and drinking camel blood in the desert.
Meanwhile, millions of Oromos are living their lives peacefully in Ethiopia, enjoying a young democracy, running in world stages winning gold medals, protecting our country, working hard to build Ethiopia's economy from scratch and enjoying diverse cultures, singing the same Oromo songs in the big stages of Adama & Finfinne (Addis Ababa.)
Thanks to the NTV, the world and Oromos worldwide have witnessed OLF at its lowest form, too weak, too small and with little support.** Yes, there are still some Oromos in the Diaspora who support the dying OLF with their hard earned money. All of us Oromos know this. In fact, over the last almost 40 years since OLF was formed, its wealthy Diaspora Oromo financers have wasted an estimated 250 Million Dollars to fund its "Armed struggle" in Ethiopia. Most of these Oromos have now regretted for wasting so much money on nothing, but more Oromos need to wake up. Where could we better use our hard earned money? How much development could we have financed with all of that $250,000,000 over the years? These are important questions all of the remaining few pro-OLF Oromo Diaspora should ask. People have suffered enough in the name of OLF. Enough bloodshed has occured. Now it is time for peace and development. Oromo people in Ethiopia have spoken loud and clear.
NOTES
* The statistic above on Eritrea starvation comes from the WFP division of the UN.
** I send a request or an appeal to Ethiopian Television (ETV) to re-broadcast the NTV documentary about OLF so that urban Oromos can see the reality of the "battle field."
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