Meles Zenawi - The Approved Subcontractor of War in Africa

As disclosed by the USAID website, US bilateral aid to Ethiopia is the highest in Africa. From 2008 to 2011, Ethiopia received over 969, 916, 533 and 583 million dollars respectively.

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/countries/ethiopia/ethiopia_fs.pdf

Additionally, Ethiopia also receives a substantial amount of humanitarian and developmental aid from the UK. According to the Department for International Development's (DFID) website, in 2009/2010 financial year, the regime in Ethiopia received a total of £214.3 million in bilateral aid from the UK alone.
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Africa-Eastern--Southern/Ethiopia/

In fact, Britain has chosen Ethiopia to be its biggest recipient of development aid during the next four years and is expected to receive $2 billion in British development assistance in a four-year period. The regime in Ethiopia benefits from both humanitarian assistance and developmental aid that has become a lifeline and without which the regime cannot survive.

Why does the West hand out a lot more aid and developmental money to the regime in Ethiopia than any other country in Africa?

These monies come with strings attached. The West needs a regime that can act as a subcontractor of war in the region which can deliver and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is desperate to prove to his client that he is a reliable subcontractor in this volatile region known as the Horn of Africa where the West does not wish to shed its blood.

Meles Zenawi, who has been in power for the last 20 years against the wishes of the majority of the Ethiopian people and by crushing the popular uprising after rigging the elections in 2005, has in mid 2011 ordered 200 T-72 tanks worth over US$ 100 million from Ukraine. He has the audacity to go on a shopping spree and splash billions of dollars on ammunitions while international aid agencies are begging for emergency food aid to feed the millions of Ethiopians who are starving to death.

It seems Meles Zenawi has eventually succeeded in manipulating and exploiting the double standards in the foreign policies of Western governments and re-established his regime as a reliable subcontractor of war in Africa.

It is apparent that the 200 T-72 tanks, warplanes and other weapons Meles has purchased from Eastern Europe using the hard currency he got from the West will be used to pursue his obsession and unfinished business of regime change in Eritrea, gain access to the Red Sea for landlocked Ethiopia. It is also in preparation for a job his client are likely to give him soon which is to support the Government of South Sudan to control the oil rich region in the disputed border region of Abyei which is currently being exploited by China in collaboration with the regime in Khartoum. Ethiopia has recently sent its troops for a ''peacekeeping mission'' to this region in order to prevent a full-fledged war between the Islamic Government in the North and Christian dominated government in south Sudan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14101950
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13977178

This is how Susan Gareth eloquently put it in her article titled ''US talks peace and prepares for war in Sudan'' '' In the worsening conflict in Sudan between the Khartoum government and the southern states that voted for independence in the January referendum, an estimated 1,500 people have been killed since the referendum and up to 150,000 people have fled their homes. Aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian disaster as the country edges towards a renewal of the two decades long north-south civil war that claimed more than two million lives. President Barack Obama has called for a ceasefire, presenting himself as an honest broker in a conflict that is largely of US making. The humanitarian disaster threatens to become a pretext for yet another US military adventure in Africa. Washington has intervened in Libya with bombing raids aimed at overthrowing the Gaddafi regime. Now it has Sudan in his sights. http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25300

Since the declaration of war against terrorism by the Bush Administration, Meles Zenawi has been exploiting the international security situation in getting unconditional political and economic support from the West. According to information disclosed by wikileaks, the Bush Administration instructed Meles Zenawi to invade Somalia in order to get rid of the Islamic Courts who for the first time in 15 years managed to bring peace and order to Somalia in 2006. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-01-07-ethiopia_x.htm

The leader of the Islamic Courts, Shek Sharif Ahmed, that Ethiopia kicked out of office in December 2006 for being a terrorist was later blessed by the Bush Administration as a moderate Muslim and became the President of the internationally recognised but weak Transitional Government of Somalia that only controls a fraction of the capital city while the rest of the country remains under the control of Al-Shabab.

According to an article by Jeffery Gentlemen, titled '' The Terrorism Stock Market: Ethiopia and Al-Shabab'' http://www.madote.com/2011/07/terrorism-stock-market-ethiopia-and-al.html '' The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) emerged in 2004 out of a judicial system, funded by the local Somali business community to bring law and order to a country that's been engulfed in anarchy since the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in 1991. After a serious of battles, the ICU had driven out the CIA-backed warlords from Mogadishu, and began to administer as a functioning government. During their brief six months rule over Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, they banned weapon's position, Khat (a loccally popular narcotic), began development, stopped piracy, and brought relative security. This made the ICU tremendously popular among their local population, even with the ICU taking away some freedoms. Unfortunately, this changed when the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer had convinced her superiors the ICU had links to Al-Qaeda and should be removed from power, despite bringing stability to lawless Somalia. In 2006, Jendayi Frazer had spearheaded an invasion of Somalia, using Ethiopia as a proxy. In complete violation of the Security Council's Resolution 1725, and Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter, Frazer ordered Ethiopia's Zenawi to send 8,000 American-trained troops into Baidoa, before the major Ethiopian invasion of 50,000 soldiers were sent in after, with complete disregard for human life, Somalia's territorial integrity and stability.''

Meles deliberately destroyed the only hope Somalia had to peace and stability in December 2006 because he views a united and peaceful Somalia in the region as a threat to Ethiopia's national security. Ethiopia and Somalia had in 1970s fought over the oil rich Ogaden region that is home to people of Somali ethnic group but is within Ethiopia's boundaries. People of Somali ethnic group are found in Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.

In 1998, Meles Zenawi was instructed by his client to bring a regime change in Eritrea and under the pretext of border dispute; he declared a full-fledged war against Eritrea. Until the conflict was eventually brought to a halt in 2000, three rounds of battles were fought and over 100,000 men were killed. In April 2002, the border dispute was legally resolved by the international court at The Hague in a final and binding verdict, however, Meles rejected this verdict and his army still occupies sovereign Eritrean territory in breach of international law. Meles failed to deliver the regime change in Eritrea as well as occupy the port of Assab so as to give Ethiopia what his predecessors failed, an access to the Red Sea for landlocked Ethiopia.
His client wants to bring a regime change in Eritrea because the government of Eritrea is labelled a bad example for the rest of Africa for persistently pursuing a policy of self-reliance and independence of external interference while promoting social justice.
The Eritrean government rejects any foreign aid that comes with strings attached or creates dependency. In spite of the lack of foreign aid, Eritrea has managed to feed its population and is set to achieve food security and the various Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations as well as promoting social justice. All these achievements were realised as a result of home-made pragmatic social, political and economic policies and without the revenue Eritrea is expected to benefit from the booming mining industry that will, according to the Economist, make Eritrea the country with the fastest growing economy in the world in 2011.

The conspiracy theory of a border dispute over Badme to invade Eritrea in order to bring a regime change and gain access to the Red Sea has expired and in his desperation, Meles has come up with yet another conspiracy ''Al-Shabab'' in order to weaken Eritrea using sanctions masterminded by his client before he declares war on Eritrea again.
As a result of the 30 years protracted military struggle for independence, Eritreans are well informed about national, regional and international politics particularly when it comes to the US double standards in its foreign policy. Eritreans are well aware why the US objected to Eritrea's independence in 1950, ignored their struggle for 30 years and were not keen to recognise Eritrea's independence in 1993 as they have been over enthusiastic and eager to recognise South Sudan. Furthermore, Eritreans know that the real issue for the conflict with Ethiopia has never been over Badme, that the main reason for the unjust sanctions is not ''Al-shabab'' and Djibouti The real reason was given away by US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles when he expressed this eloquently in 1952: "From the point of view of justice, the opinions of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United States in the Red Sea Basin and considerations of security and world peace make it necessary that the country (Eritrea) has to be linked with our ally, Ethiopia", John Foster Dulles in 1952.
US presidents in the Whitehouse come and go but those people in the corridors of power dictating US foreign policy remain permanent. This is how Finian Cunningham explains it in his article titled ''The US Dictatorship and its White House Servant 'President', ''But many other more telling facts indicate that Obama is but a figurehead of an unelected government in the US. This unelected power of corporate elites - commercial, financial, military - governs with the same core policies regardless of who is sitting in the White House. Whether these policies are on social, economic or foreign matters, the elected president must obey the direction ordained by the unelected elite. That kind of untrammeled power structure conforms more closely in practice to dictatorship, not democracy''.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25853

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