Page 491 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

Changes!

Commentary

Ethiopia - A dash for freedom, a rush to judgment

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, once lauded for ‘making peace’ with Eritrea, has been

the focus of widespread foreign condemnation for the recent civil war. It was not of
his making.

The decades ago previous civil war had ended with a fault-line that was actually leading to civil unrest
and small-scale civil violence in different provinces. The TPLF (Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front) led the
struggle to overthrow the Derg an extremely oppressive regime. The decades that followed led to
significant national economic development. But many regions saw little of this.

Ethiopia was surrounded by closed international borders. So businesses focused on the capital, Addis
Ababa. The lack of development in other regions produced tensions, conflict and sometimes violence.

But the capital centric development also meant that the Oromo people whose land surrounds Addis
Ababa lost more and more their land to development. They grew increasingly resentful of this. I saw all
this for myself in the 2-4 years before the recent civil war.

Tigray borders Eritrea. When the Ethiopia Prime Minister made peace with Eritrea, the Tigrayan leaders
split with the national government. Incidents took place that were initiated by the TPLF. Raids on military
bases to steal weapons and material. The murder of a National Government minister and a senior
military officer who visited Tigray on a mission to resolve matters.

What should the Ethiopian Prime Minister have done differently?

The pressures that create a national political instability had been mounting over

several years. Many efforts to develop the economy had already been taken (The Growth
& Transformation Plan, the Addis-Djibouti railway, the massive Ethiopian Renaissance Dam...and the
peace settlement with Eritrea that opened at least one international border and much more).

But Tigrayan leaders kept a stranglehold that acted as a brake on regional and

national economic development.

*****

Rwanda - A dash for freedom, a rush to judgment
Rwanda is an easy target for people who know little of the background of Africa.

A country in the midst of troubled and troubling neigbours,
On their western side , more than 100 armed terror groups in the North and South Kivu provinces in the
neighbouring country, the DRC. To the south, a relatively lawless Burundi. And below that country Lake
Tanganyika, a large inland lake that borders Zambia, DRC and Tanzania but has no scheduled ferry
service. Because when they start one it becomes prey to armed ‘piracy’.

A country in an Africa whose modern history is littered with m’zungu nterventions that lead
to assassinations and coups