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Monday, March 05, 2007

The Meles administration is playing a sly diplomatic game in the kidnapping case. They are letting local officials, eye-witnesses and the media fuel speculations that Eritrea was involved in the abductions without any serious government official making that allegation openly. It is a safe way to tarnish your neighbor and enemy while not taking risk in case the allegations are false.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

For TPLF its not new to play such blame game. They have done it all their existence, this is like drinking water for them. They know how to make some one look worse than they are.

Remember after they killed all those innocent peaceful protesters? They asked the truamatized family members to sighn a paper they were killed by other protesters, then when the people were outraged they "softened" their position to admit its their fault and take the body for burial. Right away they imprisoned all the ellected CUD party leadership and they blamed them for killing all the victims. While it was AGAZI TPLF force that murdered all the people. Then when the CUDP Leadership refused to accept responsibility, they used their media to blame them and make them look CUDP is worse than TPLF.

Unknown said...

What if they are?that is a militarized zone,could be very possible.My god when are you people ever going to be involved in any intelligent discussions?Cut the bullshit and focus on the issues.You know eventhough I ain't no govt.supporter,you guys have too much noise and too little action,thanks but no thanks we don't need bullshitters we need people of action...and the govt.got you'll beat on that game for now.

Unknown said...

EZ,

Easy on your Bullsht. By the way, what happened to your "Afar sources' who were telling you ransom was asked? Hehehehe. You are so full of sh.t you stink like a sack full of shabia assholes.

Unknown said...

The Contradictory statments from the regime makes them a suspect. They might even have a hand in it. What I don't understand is if some of the kidnapped Ethiopians are already released, isn't it simple to find the remaining people? what makes it difficult? there is something fishy.

Who is the proper authority here in the Tplf regime? A local
administrator, an unnamed senior Ethiopian official,
or the Ethiopian Ambassador to Great Britain?

All three of them are saying different things.
Starting with the local administrator,
Esmal Ali Sero, head of the Afar administrative region, said about 25 Eritrean "commandoes" kidnapped the British citizens along with their Ethiopian
drivers and translators on Thursday night. He cited
local investigators.

And the unnamed Senior official. way why is he so scared to speak up using his real name or is this the usual TPLF trick to confuse people.

"A senior Ethiopian official in the ruling party, who asked not to be named, also said Eritreans were behind the kidnapping."

The Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK says,

But Berharnu Kebede, Ethiopian ambassador to the UK, told Sky News: "We are not in the business of finger pointing at any group or individual or any country.
"For us the priority is to secure the safe return of these people, so no official from the Ethiopian
government has said that."

Unknown said...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article1475267.ece

Dilemma in the Horn

The kidnapping of five Britons comes at a sensitive time for Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s apparent determination to play down accusations that Eritrea was responsible for kidnapping the five Britons missing in the border area is good news. It suggests that the Ethiopians are serious in making the safe return of the staff from the British Embassy a priority. The temptation for Addis Ababa is to use the incident in its propaganda war against Eritrea, ridiculing the denials from Asmara and insisting that the Eritreans are not to be trusted. If the unfortunate visitors to the harsh and remote area have indeed been seized by troops from an Eritrean training camp, such accusations would make their release extremely difficult.

British officials are wisely saying little about what steps are being taken to trace the hostages, despite rumours that negotiators have been sent to the region and that an SAS team has arrived in Djibouti. The Government of Meles Zenawi, supported in the past by Tony Blair, has recently lost its acclaim in the West, largely because of flawed elections and reports of repression of dissidents. It knows that rescuing the missing Europeans would do much to improve its image in London, as well as other Western capitals — hence the refusal to confirm reports of Eritrean involvement in the abduction, which Asmara insisted were being spread to tarnish Eritrea’s image.

It may be that no one in the capital has a clear idea of what is happening in the poor and barren border region, 600 miles to the north east. Relations between the two countries have been tense since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and the two countries fought a protracted and pointless war in 1998 over the demarcation of their 620-mile frontier. The ceasefire in 2000 resolved little, as Ethiopia refused to hand over a town awarded by mediators to Eritrea, and Asmara, in its frustration, then restricted the operations of the United Nations peacekeeping force monitoring the shaky truce. Against this tense backdrop, local tribesmen are conducting a low-level separatist rebellion to unite their kin in the Afar region that straddles Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

For Ethiopia, the kidnapping comes at a sensitive time. Its troops are still heavily engaged in Somalia, where they intervened in support of the weak transitional Government to force out the Islamic extremists who had taken control of most of the country. Predictably, their presence was resented by many Somalis who have bitter memories of earlier border wars. Predictably also, the Ethiopians, predominantly Christian, have found themselves denounced by Muslim neighbours as a regional bully and American stooge for the support that Washington has given them. The Meles Government, with only shaky control over remote tribal areas, does not want opportunist neighbours stirring fresh disaffection. It has withdrawn many of its troops from Mogadishu, but cannot afford to leave Somalia prey to further infiltration by al-Qaeda.

Eritrea, which has squandered opportunities and goodwill with growing repression by a president once praised in the West for realism, also needs to rehabilitate its image. This could be helped by cooperating in the search for the British hostages, swiftly releasing them, if indeed dissident troops seized them, or using local knowledge to help to track down whichever group is now holding the unfortunate tourists.

Unknown said...

When I look at the two reports. My suspicion is growing towards the Tplf regime. May be the Melles regime encouraged local governments (Tigray or Afar) to stir up problem along the boarder to coincide with the date of court ruling on the CUD leaders but all got out of control.

look here

Mystery still surrounds who took the Britons, and why. Some residents of Hamedelah insisted the attackers wore the fatigues of Ethiopian police and most believe they were bandits who have harassed tourists in the past.

Many questions remain. Why did the local militias not give chase or try to prevent the kidnapping? And why has no-one contacted either the British or Ethiopian governments with demands?

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=349572007

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said investigators were weighing up a number of possibilities, but the most plausible was that a government in the region had encouraged local tribesmen to stir up trouble along the border.

"In this case, they bit off more than they could chew, they apparently had no idea they were capturing western diplomats and the huge international operation that would then result," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6418367.stm

Ethio said...

I am praying for woyane to go Asmera and start the war with Shaiba. Eventhough those who are going to fight with Shabia on Ethiopian said are my brothers and sister, this time will give a lessen for woyane. This is not the Time that the Ethiopian People fight for Bademe. This war is not the same as invading Somalia who has no Organized millinery power This could give us a good chance to remove woyane form our shoulder. But I am sure Melse, an Ertirian by Bllod will not going to do this because he know this is the same as winding a rope around his neck

Unknown said...

Meli is in checkmate. The only lifeline he has is keep his hostages (CUD leaders) in prison and stirring the Ethiopian people by ethnic and religions, blaming other countries as invader. Other than that, he has no power to do any thing against any organized power. As they say, –“use it or lose it” – his chance to go against Isayas is gone. He cannot expect the Ethiopian people to support him any more, be it for Badme or Asseb this time.

Unknown said...

On today's DW(Germen) Radio a spoksman from Foriegn office in London said that they are working with both Ethiopia and Eritrea. He said UK's ambassador in Ethiopia dismissed allegation of local Ethiopians on Eritrea. He also said that the investigation is leading towards local rebels that operate in Afar region who didn't know what they were getting in to. He said they are not sure if these rebel groups are related to alqaeda.

Unknown said...

It is the end for TPLF and her corrupt officials. We are waiting for the best moment to take her down. She does not have strong enough army to go for military adventure with Shabia, they have all their power plus more while TPLF has lost the support of Amhara and Oromo people. In addition to those large ethnic group, TPLF has to deal with OLF, EPPF, TPDM, OONLF, SPLF, and the new abducting organization Afar National Democratic Movement (ANDM), and lets not forget the new movement working underneath, Kinjit movement. The one that includes all AFD, which is currently establishing its military wing.

TPLF has to deal with all these groups before she is able to come after Shabia. Shabia has more strength and less money that TPLF, they can take her down without any doubt. In fact, that is what we want, we want Shabia to soften TPLF out with few slaps, that way we do not need any more assistance, we'll take her down ourselves. TPLF is at her most vulnerable position right now, she is bogged down in Somlia. The Somalis are doing a fantastic job, she is bleeding there, we just have to raise our arms and send her to HELL where she belongs.

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