<
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/500606> The TPLF variant on
apartheid
By Dawit Fanta
April 3rd, 2013
>From the outset TPLF defines itself as a liberator for one specifically
racially defined group. And still after two decades on power, irrespective
of its ostensible claim that it is under the umbrella of EPRDF, people of
the same origin monopolistically has held the whip-hand; and the whole
country has been cash cowed by one specific racial group while the majority
is being treated as impediments.
The apartheid nature and characteristics of TPLF's policies and behavior is
as covert as possible to throw the majority into total muddle until it is
too late. To put it bluntly, the fledgling apartheid system of TPLF is
emerging through a frog boiling tactic.
The TPLF's apartheid system can be described as a subtle state action
designed to secure and maintain the Tigrian domination by furthering their
Economic and Political interests through control over the majority
Non-Tigrian population.
The following categories make the necessary, sufficient, and defining
characteristics of the emerging tender-plant apartheid system in Ethiopia:
1.Economic Interest
Furthering the Tigrean economic dominance is mainly achieved through a
threefold economic sabotage: i.e.,
1. Through the creation of Tigrian tycoons in every facet of the economy;
2. By building extractive business empire;
3. Through emasculation of Non-Tigrian business firms.
Let's see each of the above points in detail.
1.1 The incubation of the Tigrian Racketeers: Unlike the loosely dispersed
and individualistic Non-Tigrian business men, the Tigrian racketeers are a
highly organized kleptomaniacs that are exclusively nurtured by the
under-table action of the government in a way that:
- Favoring to get loan from state-owned banks with least or no
collateral;
- Facilitating the bureaucratic process in the Custom office with
least search procedure while this government office intentionally delays the
items that belonged to the Non-Tigrian business men.
- Government toleration for their criminal act of tax evasion.
- For the Tigrian importers, letter of credit will be processed
easily and access to hard currency is almost unlimited; whereas the
Non-Tigrians must wait a minimum of 4 to 6 months since their application.
- The government has granted them key business sites under low
bid.
- The government conducts special training programs and video
conferences to create situational awareness among them and update them with
first hand information. At this point, we must not forget that nowadays
information is equivalent to money.
On top of that, they have been informed /''trained''/ and equipped with the
following racketeering tactics.
1. Insider Trading: Obviously all key governmental positions are
occupied by the Tigrian; which means any policy or information particularly
related with business reaches to the Tigrian racketeers before the crowd
gets it so they adjust everything in advance to suit to the new condition.
And due to such a prior knowledge they net millions from insider trading.
They also have foreknowledge on every government auction however the
Non-Tigrians get it lately from news papers. For insider information equals
''money'' in a modern market economy, it is a great power in the hands of
people who are the most cohesive and organized criminal group like the
Tigrian racketeers. As a matter of fact, insider information is illegal both
from moral and law perspective.
2. Dual Set of Ethics: In fact, the Tigrian racketeers have been
informed directly or indirectly to practice a dual set of ethics:
I. An altruistic set of ethics for themselves and
II. A predatory one for the rest of Ethiopian people.
- They don't compete with one another for a single niche of market;
- They don't interfere with the monopoly controlled by other
Tigrian racketeer;
- They are barred from underbidding fellow Tigrian racketeer.
- They are always cooperate with one another so as "not to lose the
money of Tigray"
3. Team Strategy: Before we go to how they act in team, let's see the
psychological set up of the Tigrian racketeers and the Non-Tigrian business
men.
The Non-Tigrian have been conditioned to think that everyone must be judged
on his or her merits and that it would be immoral to be biased for his own
race. The Tigrian racketeers, on the other hand, have been conditioned from
early time of TPLF to think in terms of the good of their race.
Keeping this fact in mind, what they are practicing is through "Infect to
insolvency and then wait to takeover" approach. For example, if they need to
monopolize certain business sector they allocate a calculated sum of money
to under bid the price of item which certainly makes the Non-Tigrian
competitor unable to fight with irrationally low price then put the
competitor company into insolvency and finally buy the company itself with a
giveaway price and will apply "the abuse of dominance" once they control the
sector.
In general, a cohesive and powerful team effort, dual set of ethics along
with insider information consistently amasses collective power to the
Tigrian racketeers over a scattered and individualistic Non-Tigrian.
1.2 By Establishing Extractive Trade Empire: An acronym EFFORT stands for
the TPLF's multi-billionaire trade empire called Endowment Fund for the
Rehabilitation of Tigray. It was established by expropriating capital
equipments from different parts of the country and by the infamous defaulted
bank debts. Currently there is no business sector that is free from the
involvement of EFFORT. It stretched from production to distribution, from
finance to insurance, from wholesale to retail, from real-estate to
horticulture, from mining to IT. Peculiarly, this trade empire hasn't ever
been audited by external auditor nor repays the loan it borrowed
periodically.
Similar to the Tigrian private companies, EFFORT is also privileged in the
following manner:
- It is awarded government auctions of big projects;
- Favored to borrow in billions without collateral and it is not
subject to repayment;
- Equipped with insider information;
- Granted fertile land at a giveaway price by displacing tens of
thousands of indigenous people from their ancestral land;
- Granted key mining sites without open bid;
- Market opportunity will be arranged for it by forcing regional
and federal offices to buy products which haven't a relevant importance or
in an exaggerated quantity.
Surprisingly, almost 99.9% of the employees in these innumerable companies
of EFFORT are Tigrian; which means that majority of the economy is occupied
by either the Tigrian private companies or by the extractive trade empire
called EFFORT; and they primarily privileged job opportunity for Tigrians.
As the complete cycle of economic dominance and privileged labor market
portrays, we are under a severe economic genocide.
1.3 Stifling of Non-Tigrians' Business Firms: Obviously the playing ground
is not level; and the whole situation is an uphill battle for Non-Tigrians'
business firms to survive all the barriers that they faced from the
government bureaucracy and from economic sabotage of the highly privileged
EFFORT companies and the cohesive Tigrian racketeers. Consequently,
especially after election-2005 we have seen that many Non-Tigrian businesses
have been either liquidated or down-sized.
2. Political Interest
The foremost plan of TPLF was to secede the Tigray region from the rest of
the country and to establish a sovereign republic, as plainly stated in
Manifesto-68 which was formulated by the triumvirate of Abay Tsehaye, Sebhat
Nega and Meles Zenawi. However, through time they inferred that a sovereign
republic of Tigray would be a weak and failed state. Then they changed their
program to live together as a state-within-a state and TPLF's role as a
Quasi-Occupying Force.
Similar to the case for economic dominance, TPLF and Tigrians maintain their
political dominance using racial solidarity as weapon against the
Non-Tigrian Ethiopians in the following manner:
2.1. Surrogate Colonization /Repopulation/: The TPLF apartheid system has
also been featured with Depopulation and Population-Transfer. The annexation
of arable lands of the Amhara region like Humera, Welkayt, Tsegede, Alamata,
Korem and so on, to Tigray province and depopulating the indigenous Amharas
from those places and then replacing with Tigrians is a case in point of the
surrogate colonization of the TPLF regime. The expansion of Tigrians is also
continuing in west and north Gondar to annex the North Mountains after they
learned that the North Heights are fields of Gold and other Precious metals.
2.2. Expropriation of Land /Landed Property/ Belonging to A Racial Group: As
a matter of the truth, the people of Gambella have been denied its natural
right of living on its ancestral land. And clearly we know that more than
quarter of arable land of the region has been awarded to land grabbers at a
giveaway price by TPLF megalomaniacs. But beside to this, more than 2/3 of
the remaining arable land has been expropriated by Tigrian Mechanized-Farm
owners in which it left more than 70,000 indigenous people for forcible
relocation to the place where the soil is dry with poor quality and with no
infrastructure. What worsened the situation was that the deployment of the
TPLF mechanized army upon the unprotected civilians to enforce forcible
relocation of the indigenous people. As a result, they became victim of
genocide, rape and conflagration of their villages by TPLF militias.
2.3. Deliberate Denigration of Living Conditions of Non-Tigrian Racial
Groups: This includes:
- Demolishing of business areas under cover story of investment
which are mainly occupied by Gurage business men in the capital city of
Addis Ababa. Particularly after election-2005, the Gurages have been
profiled as "Accomplice of Neftegna" and currently as "Ginbot-7
Sympathizers"; and consequently, they are paying the expensive price ever
for the alleged charge.
- Internal deportation and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of
the Amhara people from different parts of the country by confiscation of
their tenure and property is also one of the cruelest repressions of the
racist regime of TPLF in order to break the potential resistance from this
group by throwing them into absolute destitution and instability.
2.4. Infliction of Serious Bodily and Mental Harm upon Certain Racial
Members: Tens of thousands of political and Conscience prisoners are
concentrated in three federal and 120 regional major prisons. They are also
found in an unofficial detention centers in military camps including in
Dedessa, Bir Sheleqo, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and
Senqele. Majority of the prisoners are racially Oromo; and their alleged
charge is "Sympathizers of OLF". The number of Amhara, Gambella and
Ogadenese political and conscience prisoners are also significant.
The condition of these political prisoners is extremely harsh, overcrowded
and life threatening. Besides, the TPLF henchmen often use a series of
torture and brutal interrogation to extract confessions including whipping
on the soles of feet, over stretching of limbs, slow dripping of water on
the head, slandering of their race, pulling out of nails, forcible
extraction of teeth, weights suspended on testicles, plunging into spoiled
water, solitary confinement in dark cell for long period of time, signing a
confession, forced self-incrimination, threatening with injection of HIV
infected blood, forcing to denounce others, burning with cigarette,
insertion of bottle and hot candle into prisoners' rectum, drowning into ice
cold water for long period of time and beating with rifle butt, stick, whip,
belt etc.
2.5. Access: No matter how the Non-Tigrians have the qualification for the
high post in the army or the security apparatus or for key government
offices, they have already been denied by the unwritten law of TPLF. Access
to government-sponsored scholarship at the overseas is also highly secured
for Tigrians.
In conclusion, Ethiopia is a country of nations and nationalities. So there
must not be room for the socio-political and economic dominance of single
race. All the people of Ethiopia must be treated as an empowered citizen.
The fledgling Tigrian apartheid system must be nipped in the bud before it
sparks the bloody genocide.
As a universal truth, no one ever negotiated successfully from weakness, but
from strength. It must be our primary target to be strong. And, I do
personally believe that awakening to the truth will make us strong. We are
now in the middle of life-or-death struggle; if we fail to break the yoke of
TPLF's apartheid system the future of our people, the continuity of our race
and the stability of our country will be at stake.
We have left nothing with TPLF; we have been cornered, humiliated,
persecuted, harassed, assaulted, exiled, locked-in jail, tortured, expelled,
impoverished by design, confiscated and decimated. We must not have room for
the source of all these evil, TPLF, anymore!!! We must fight it by all
possible means until we regain our freedom!!! We must struggle desperately
until we tear apart the reins of the Quasi-Occupiers!!!
On the other hand, the Tigrians must also do their own homework before they
are being treated as:
- Accomplice of Criminally guilty TPLF officials;
- Politically guilty as TPLF Supporters;
- Morally guilty as Tigrians;
- And perhaps, metaphysically guilty as Ethiopians.
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Wed Apr 03 2013 - 11:22:01 EDT
