Bad attention to Ethiopia.

April 12, 2007 - With the Guantanamo Bay annex in Ethiopia and the growing story that the Ethiopian Army committed war crimes by indiscriminately shelling a populated area in Mogadishu ending in over 1,100 citizens murdered and over 4,300 citizens wounded during the four days of terror, the Somalia adventures of the Crime Minister is starting to become more than ugly and the unwanted attention by the international media is a menace for him. Even the BBC is awakening for their lethargy and brought the war crime story.

The propaganda machine was just getting oiled up again with giant growing figures and with tackling the inflation.

In Ethiopia the regime is able to silence the press with tough measures, and also in Somalia they are playing now the same game. But when the international press is getting interested in the local affairs of the Horn, they are risking that old stories will be deepened up. Then it is not difficult to start remembering that in 2005 the Agazi specials were indiscriminately killing Ethiopian citizens in Addis Ababa, and some years ago in Awasa, Teppi and the genocide in Gambela where the Anuak people are hunted down.

The arms sale from the North Koreans also brought unwanted attention. If I remember it well, the right wing Contra rebels against the Sandinistic regime in Nicaragua were given weapons the same way and that became a court case in America, and also unwanted attention on how the dirty war over there was financed. The whole thing was financed with illegal arms sales to Iran. It became the so called Irangate affair under Ronald Reagan. This could become something like that. North Korea is one of the three countries (the others are Syria and Iran) that Bush calls the Axis of Evil. Financing arms deals with them is an offence I suppose.

In the meanwhile Jendayi Frazer has brought a visit to Somalia and is actively talking to many stakeholders. She is accusing Eritrea of involvement in the insurgency. On the weapon deal with North Korea and the use of excessive power in Mogadishu (to which she appeared to agree), she refused any comment since “you are not criticizing your friends”.

This might fuel the ambitions of the TPLF to start a new adventure up north. We can guess where she got the information from. But the nephews will not become hurt.