Tolossa Gofta Kassane, Ph.D. United Kingdom, November, 11, 2002.
This is a brief appeal to all Ethiopians at home and in the Diaspora as well as to the International donor communities to come together to alleviate the suffering of Ethiopians that the current hunger and the spread of HIV/AIDS present.
My appeal is that while the international community is right to to help the needy, however, it also has a duty to evaluate whether the mechanism in place by the an unrepresentative, and repressive government of Meles Zenawi is adequate in reaching out to the needy without discrimination. In this regard, it is a well established fact that not only the Meles regime discriminates in the delivery of who gets what aid, but also that the regime uses aid to feed its ever increasing security apparatus and its militia whilst using part of the aid to buy offensive weapons to fight wars of attrition.
Along with this is also Ethiopian Diaspora's reluctance to be engaged by the regime that is seen as repressive, partisan and unwilling to work in collaboration with the broad spectrum of Ethiopian society beyond its cadre networks. However, the dilemma of wanting to help, but finding it hard to work with what is seen as an illegitimate repressive machinery can be overcome if the international community[donor governments , international and local neutral NGOs] can join hands with Ethiopians to establish a neutral means of coordinating and delivering aid to the needy. How?
In this respect, I propose that the Donor governments use internationally reputable NGOs and do link up with what I call the ''Citizens' League of Ethiopia [the latter one to be organized by bringing together notable Ethiopians whom we Ethiopians at large regard as impartial national figures, whose members would come from Ethiopia and abroad, as well]. If and when set up, the ''Citizens' League of Ethiopia'', would mobilize the material, technical and expertise of the more than two million Ethiopians that would complement the efforts of the international community. It would be an excellent opportunity for the Diaspora to be linked up with compatriots at home.
If and when this project is realized, the west would attain two
objectives:
There will be a guarantee that aid is not used by the ruling clique as a
political weapon and that the coming together of Ethiopians and the
international community would open up an avenue in terms of long term security
and development issue concerns. It is the right thing to do given Meles'
government is very limited in terms of its capacity to mobilize Ethiopians in
the face of an unprecedented level of national crises which can not be tackled
within the government's scope of operation. What next to realize my dream, then?
I take this opportunity to appeal to all Ethiopians regardless of our differences to come together at this crucial time to help our brothers, mothers, sisters, and fathers and to seize this opportunity to lobby the international community to agree to the idea of aid being distributed by independent body. Likewise, I take this opportunity to appeal to the international community to listen to Ethiopians' genuine concerns and to work with us on the best way to tackle the crises that are killing off a generation. It is in the best interest of the international community to stabilize Ethiopia, to assist our attempts at good governance and of a reduction and removal of the sources of conflicts.
In conclusion, I wish to reiterate the obvious that the major aspects of Ethiopia's disasters are man-made and as such require the resolution of the underlying conflicts to get Ethiopia back on her feet. Hence, what a better mechanism there is than Ethiopians working with the international community to tackle the current crises and also to plan preventative means for future crises of similar nature.
Last, as readers will notice, I have avoided referring to the analysis of famine and its causes as there is already enough documentations in this regard [readers may refer to the works of Profs: Mesfin Woldemariam, G.Araia and Susan George, among several other excellent sources].
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