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In Meles parliament "If you ask questions..you are a terrorist"
OPDO Chairman Abadula Gemeda faces growing criticism inside his party that's controlled by the TPLF. Mr. Belete Etana was one of the trusted OPDO members with additional responsibilities in the Budget and Finance committee.

Press Release by Mr. Belete Etana, MP & D/Chairman PAC of Ethiopian Parliament

To introduce myself, I am MP and D/chairman of Public Account Standing Committee (PAC) of the House of Peoples’ Representatives of Ethiopia, elected as a representative of Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) from Limu Kossa District, Jimma zone, Oromia region.

I want to give my honest and sincere testimony of the conditions currently prevailing in Ethiopia. This testimony is in no way intended to defame the ruling party and its cohorts. The main purpose of this letter is to expose the hidden facts in Ethiopia.

Today in Ethiopia there is no democracy, rule of law, respect for human and civil rights. The judiciary system in totally under the control of TPLF. There is no justice and independent court proceeding.

If you are an MP, you are liable to ask questions. But if you ask questions, you are branded as OLF and you are a terrorist and a criminal. But Article 54(5) of the FDRE Constitution, states that “No member of the House may be prosecuted on account of any vote he cats or opinion he expresses in the House, nor shall any administrative action be taken against any member on such grounds.” But the person who asks the democratic and human rights of the people to be respected is automatically branded as OLF member, and I am one of the victim.

EPRDF/TPLF regime is simply a dictatorship. It does not respect its own constitution. It kill, detains torture and arbitrary arrest innocent citizens without any evidence or crime committed. The regime is on a wide campaign of detaining Oromo nationalists. Totally, human rights abuses are common and a day to day activity of the regime, particularly in Oromia. Authorities imposed the new structures the “Garee” and “Goxii” system to monitor the speech and personal lives of the rural population, to restrict and control the movement of residents, if you oppose the system, you thrown into prison to stay there for years without appearing before appropriate court.

Article 12 (1) and (2) of the FDRE constitution states about transparency and accountability but on the ground the fact is different. In 2008 from the 20 Federal Government Institutions, over 192.5 million birr was detected as deficit (misuse). From this money, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia account for the biggest share of improperly spent money. The finding also states that 560 million birr from Revenue Authority and 121.9 million birr from the Ethiopian Customs Authority, revenue has not been backed up by any documents.

On the other hand, the Ethiopian Mapping Agency and Ministry of Mines and Energy for billing customers without the proper tariff that has been approved by the Council of Ministers. Furthermore, the former Ministry of Infrastructure has collected over 47.2 million birr annual fee with out any approved tariff.

Our finding also reveals that over 226.5 million birr worth of purchase by six institutions were not in accordance with the purchase manual of the government. The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia has also paid 98,000 birr to its former head as salary and allowance when the head was not at his position for 27 months.

The NBE on the recent gold scandal scam reveals that contrary to the bank procedure, one individual has been supplying gold to the bank without registering. Package that contains the brick of gold has not been properly inspected after it was certified it was gold by the Ethiopian Geological Survey office. The bank has also paid the gold value without properly weighing it and has accepted 38 similar gold bricks that weigh the same and with equal carat levels.

The finding also revealed illegal procurement, unlawful payments, spending beyond the allocated budget, and expenditure that could not be accounted, amounting to more than 2.5 billion Birr. Also the government of improperly borrowing an extra 3.3 billion birr from banks. This borrowing brings (of course) inflation to the country.

In all indicators reflect that corruption remained a serious problem in the country. As of our responsibility to investigate this fact the response of the government is disparage and disqualify the activity. On the other hand, the government officials appeared to manipulate the privatization process, state & party owned businesses received preferential access and misuse of public funds.

This has been giving me a mental torture for the last three years. Now it become so unbearable that I had to make my decision. I have been receiving death threats for speaking up against the wanton disregard for the rule of law. Under the circumstances, my conscience could not allow me to continue member of the party, an MP and D/chairman of PAC of the House. I have chosen to desist myself from the regime and its rubber stamp parliament.

Belete Etana Disassa
MP and D/chairman of PAC
Of Ethiopian HPR

REPORT: GADAA.com

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Comments 22 comments for this article
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Added: December 02, 2009. 02:45 PM GMT
Ethiopia: 6 high ranking officers defected
Ethiopia: 6 high ranking officers defected
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/11588
Anonymous
Added: November 30, 2009. 12:34 PM GMT
Down with Meles and his team
I blame not only Meles but the bvottom hayenas.Down with the oromos who serve as slaves of the TPLF to exploit thier tribes.They worship thier belly."harree fi sareen garaa ofii jaalatti" saroota fi harrootaa duti haa ta'u. I am in ormia stiill.
Anonymous
Added: November 29, 2009. 07:06 AM GMT
USA
oromia will be a free country and all those who support the dictator meles you will soon rott in hell for your crimes.
Anonymous
Added: November 26, 2009. 08:15 PM GMT
COMMANDO
GOD BLESS WOYANE TIGRAY DOWN WITH OLF G7 AND OTHER HODAMS WHO DONT LIKK PEACE N DEVOLOPEMENTS IN OUR BELOVED COUNTRY ETHIOPIA. PM.MELES ZENAWI YOU R THE BEST LEADER IN AFRIQA MAY GOD GIVE YOU ANOTHER 100 YEARS TO RULE ETHIOPIA. LONG LIVE TIGRAY GOD BLESS MOTHER LAND HABESHA. DEATH TO ALL ANTY ETHIOPIAN GOVERNEMENT.
COMMANDO
Added: November 07, 2009. 05:28 PM GMT
All Questions to be asked, fair and balanced
We can ask as many questions as we want but the end result should be to make the EPRDF deserters feel welcome back to their home.

Prodigal Son, Belete Etana, Welcome back brother! We love you and we've always loved you. Stop your old ways and start atoning for your 18 yrs of sin against your sisters, brothers, moms and dads.

Welcome home!
Anonymous
Added: November 07, 2009. 04:38 PM GMT
All Ethiopians!!! Read this!!!!!!!!!!

The Zenawi-Shawel Handshake – the Anti-Thesis of Liberty & Democracy (By Fayyis Oromia)
v

The Zenawi-Shawel Handshake – the Anti-Thesis of Liberty & Democracy

By Fayyis Oromia

Few days back, surprising and “shocking” news came out of the Ethiopian empire, i.e. the handshake of the Weyane Tigrai hegemonist Mr. Meles Zenawi with the Amhara conservative unitarist Mr. Hailu Shawel. What do these two persons have in common? Why did the handshake happen? Why was it surprising to most Ethiopians, in general, and “shocking” to Amharas, in particular? Did the “Oromo factor” play a certain role for the handshake to happen? What is the relation of this handshake to the hitherto attempts made to achieve the necessary compromise between Amhara democratic forces and Oromo federalist movements in the formation of the recent alliance aka Medrek?

Looking back at the history of the empire in the last about 150 years, Amhara and Tigrai elites used to compete on the issue of who should be the empire’s dominating force. Till 1991, Amhara elites were the dominating force whereas Tigrai elites had the junior role of cooperating for the common benefit. Both used to oppress and exploit Oromo people, in particular, and all oppressed nations in the empire, in general. Since 1991, they exchanged their roles so that Tigrai elites became the dominating force, and Amhara elites adapted to play the junior role, and yet both elite groups are prospering at the cost of the oppressed nations.

Now, the struggle of the oppressed nations is slowly getting a momentum, and all nations, including the currently-subjugated Amhara poor, are now trying to come together to challenge the ruling Tigrean elites, and also struggle against the few cooperating Amhara and Oromo elites, who are still benefiting from the system. The main goal of the Oromo nation’s struggle, being led by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and that of the struggle of other oppressed nations is to get rid of the Nefxenya system of domination (domination by using Nefx or gun). For the oppressed nations, the 21st-century Tigrean Nefxenya is not different from the 20th-century Amhara Nefxenya.

The 21st-century and modern Nefxenyas have ruled over Ethiopian peoples in the last 18 years, specially by using the divide-and-rule method. They have managed to sow a discord among Amhara democratic forces, which are pro Ethiopian unity, and Oromo freedom fighters, which are pro liberty of nations. These two pro-unity and pro-liberty forces have been fighting each other, thus Weyane has managed to rule without facing any cooperated and coordinated challenge from the two BIG nations.

Thanks to the farsighted OLF leaders and some representatives of Amhara democrats, certain discussions have been going on for the last few years on the issue of how to find a common denominator to forge an alliance and fight against the fascist Weyane. They tried to look at the two virtues (”democracy” and “liberty”) as the strong sides of the two nations. Being pro-unity is the strong side of Amhara democratic forces, and being pro-liberty is the strong side of Oromo liberation fronts. Both tried to reconcile these two important virtues so that it might be possible to achieve both national liberty and regional (Ethiopian) unity. This effort showed good results by forging AFD (the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy) in 2006, and now by forming Medrek (the Forum for Democratic Dialogue – FDD.) The coming together of Amhara democratic forces and Oromo freedom fronts in these alliances has been very shocking news for Weyane fascists.

Now pro-democracy and pro-freedom forces, both at home and in Diaspora, are coming together for a common denominator of struggling for freedom and democracy in the region called Ethiopia. Amhara democrats have started to recognize the God-given right of Oromo nation to self-administration and autonomy; Oromo freedom fighters have started to say: “if there will be no Abesha domination, there will be no necessity of Oromo liberation in a sense of secession.” That is why Medrek was forged as a compromise and good “midpoint” solution based on a predetermination by elites to fix the conflict between Abyssinia and Oromo. Of course, the “endpoint” solution will be the confirmation of Medrek’s position by the self-determination of each concerned nation, which seems to be the position of AFD.

Both the above mentioned solutions (that of Medrek and that of AFD) are the anti-dotes against the 20th-century Nefxenya, for which Ato Hailu Shawel and co. are nostalgically longing for; the Medrek and AFD solutions are also anti-dotes against the 21st-century Nefxenya led by Aite Meles Zenawi. So, the common view of the two Nefxenyas is their anti-democracy and anti-freedom position. Now, we can see that the “shocking” handshake of the two men is a symbol of cooperation of two dictators against the emergence of the very constructive pro-democracy and pro-freedom alliance aka Medrek.

Mederek, with its potential, is the good challenge against Weyane fascists, if the next election becomes really free and fair. It is crystal-clear that Weyane will never allow it to be as such, so that the other option would be the struggle by all means as G-7 and OLF are trying to do. Now, there is a probability for Amhara democrats in Diaspora rallying behind G-7, EPPF and EPRP to forge a new alliance similar to AFD with freedom fighters like OLF, ONLF and SLF — all to be helped by Eritrea against the fascist regime in Finfinne.

Weryane is now under immense pressure from Medrek at home, from pro-democracy forces in Diaspora, from famine in Ethiopia, from the international community and, of course, from the Eritrean government. Being under such dire situation, the hegemonist Meles now got a saving handshake from the unitarist Hailu Shawel, who seems to have obsolete mentality. It is a fact that Hailu Shawel does have a support of a lot of Amharas, who are emotionally attached to him, not based on reason, but just based on the false Ethiopian patriotism. I hope they will slowly and surely get the true color of this dictator, and that they will opt for the genuine and lasting solution as pro-democracy Amharas in UDJ and G-7 are trying to do. The only lasting solution is union of all nations in the empire based on self-determination.

To answer the questions I raised at the beginning:

What do these two persons have in common?
- The two dictators have in common the purpose of opposing any movement for freedom and democracy for they know that the realization of these two virtues means an end to both Nefxenya systems.

Why did the handshake happen?
- The handshake happened now in order to save the Abyssinian system of domination, in which both Amhara Nefxenya elites and Tigrai Nefxenya elites used to prey on the oppressed nations, like Oromo. They are on their last attempt of saving the system not to be destroyed by all pro-democracy and pro-freedom forces (including Amhara and Tigrai democrats).

Why was it surprising to most Ethiopians, in general, and “shocking” to Amharas, in particular?
- The handshake was surprising to all Ethiopians because of Mr. Hailu’s and his friends, like Dr. Taye’s, hitherto arrogance and their show not to have any relation with Weyane; it was “shocking” to Amharas for it made them to be seen as boot lickers of Weyane. The picture of Ato Hailu bowing so low to the feet of Aite Meles is very humiliating for the supporters of Ato Hailu, to say the least.

Did the “Oromo factor” play a certain role for the handshake to happen?
- Of course, the “Oromo factor” played an immense role for the handshake. Conservative Amharas like Ato Hailu used to believe and they still believe that “it is better to be ruled by Tigreans for 100 years than to be ruled by Oromo for 1 day.” They know that true democracy and freedom means appropriate share of power for the Oromo people. This group does have more fear from Oromo in power than from Tigrean in power. So, the handshake can be perceived as that of two Nefxenyas taking vows not to leave Oromia free from their exploitation and oppression. It is a symbolical agreement to continue their system of domination, be it Amhara Nefxenya or Tigrai Nefxenya, in the Finfinne palace.

What is the relation of this handshake to the hitherto attempts made to achieve the necessary compromise between Amhara democratic forces and Oromo federalist movements in the formation of the recent alliance aka Medrek?
- The handshake is simply put the anti-thesis of the cooperation of Abesha democratic forces and Oromo freedom fighters in Medrek and in AFD in order to forge a common home in that region based on democracy, equality, freedom and justice. It seems Weyane is trying to lure certain Amhara forces away from forging such an alliance with Oromo fronts. If the handshake succeeds, then Weyane’s divide-and-rule tactics between Amhara forces and Oromo fronts will revive again.

Now, the division of the political camps in the empire is slowly becoming clear: dictators and fascist Nefxenyas on one side, whereas democrats and freedom fighters on the other side. Weyane with its moles, like Lidetu, Ayele and Hailu, being in the first group, while Medrek, with its pro-democracy supporters at home and in Diaspora, in the second group.

What is the implication of the handshake on the Oromo liberation movement. It depends on the definition we do give for the word liberation. If it is “liberation” in the sense of the status quo as OPDO people try to convince us, then the handshake is good to keep it. If “liberation” means self-determination in the form of Oromian autonomy in Ethiopian context, like what Oromo federalists in Medrek want to realize, then the handshake is against it. If we mean “liberation” is self-determination leading to Oromian independence, be it within a union or without a union of nations in the empire/region, the handshake is almost similar to the handshake of Hitler with Mussolini to subjugate the free world. Simply put, the handshake is the anti-thesis of the alliances like Medrek, and it helps Weyane to secure its power further for at least the next 5 years based on its method of divide-and-rule. The only question to be answered is: did Ato Hailu do this intentionally being the “smart Weyane supporter” or did he do the job unintentionally being the “stu*pid anti-Weyane”, who is just naively instrumentalized by the canning fox!

Gurbattii
Added: November 04, 2009. 04:07 PM GMT
Furrissa
Hi! The so called Syemoe, a guy who can not even write his name correctly! The Oromo issue is not as simple as sitting, farting and vomiting at your pc!!!!!!!!! It is a complex issue. It is an issue that is buried for more than a century. But, whether you like it or not, we are progressing. Our "bilisummaa" starts from our mindset. Most of us are mentally, culturally, linguistically,psychologically, etc "habashanized".This is not an inferiority complex, but a reality. We are now being liberated mentally. We are stepping forward. No backslide after all. Therefore, "tesfa quraxu"!!!!!!!! Look around you, the habashanized oromos, and even the opdos are being mentally liberated. You foolish!! liberation may not necessarily be secessinism. Liberation is the right to get full control over one self's territory, resource and fate. Believe me, this will be materialized (accomplished) sooner or later. You are always brave at accusing OLF. What about your fake political organizations??????? What did they do for their people???? OLF has done much for the oromo. At least it helped us to understand our right. It has awakened most of us. Long live OLF!!! I hope, they will unite soon. But, whether they become successful or not, the oromo problem is a reality. Reality is reality!!! The oromo issue is not "a fire in a straw". So, you better shut your mouth and contribute your part to change the "prison" so called "country" into a real home of citizens. Otherwise, you will be lost from the "chapters" of history. "Asmasayoch!!!!". Maasmasal ayibaqachihum??? "Gibizoch!!!!" Baqqaany!!!

Gurbattii
Anonymous
Added: November 03, 2009. 11:00 AM GMT
Good Job!
What I can say to Obbo Belete is:
You did very brilliant job,in expossing this fake Oromia regional government,aka,OPDO, who has been fullfilling the mission of distroying Oromos.
I am really surprised,How for the sake of God,they are enjoying their role of slavary for Tigrians.
They are not government !They are slaves of Tigre! They fulfill the mission of killing and distroying Oromos,who they recieve from Meles.It shuold not be long that they will appear infront of justice together with their boss- Legesse Zena(ya cinnan sennaa )!!!
You did great job Oboo Belaxa!
Please guys ,Let's us appreciate those kind of oromos and other Ethiopian ,who unknowngly put them selve under the slavary of woyanne.
Death to Woyanne!! Long live for Oromos in particular and other innocent Ethiopian in general and Ethiopia!!!One Ethiopia for Ever!!!
Anonymous
Added: November 03, 2009. 05:47 AM GMT
Bravo OLF
never and ever OLF walk one inch forward. They walk-standing forever with their outdated politics and politicians. The EPRDF has respected the OROMO people. If you want to fight, first learn from ONLF. O for Ogaden. How brve they are atleast when compared to your easly-surrendering militias.
syemoe
Added: November 02, 2009. 03:13 PM GMT
Gumaa
Hi! You "tortora" it took you solid 18yrs to come to this understanding!!!!!!!!What a wonderful donkey???!!!! You & the like "abbaa garaa"s such as Minaasee W/Giorgis(Abbaadullaa?) & Taayyee T/Maariyam(Kumaa?)are good for nothing! You were and are killing the Oromo. You are really, with out exaggeration, the modern "gobanaa". For a matured & normal individual, 2 or3 yrs are more than enough to recognize an enemy. Are you dead???????!!!!!!!!! What do you feel now? You were killing your father, mother, sister, brother,etc. You are really a hyena. 'Gadheen duruu nyaattee gabbatti. Look at your boss Abbaaduulaa. He needs "xut maasyazya" for his cheeks while the people are starving to death. Shame!!What is your plan now? Are you going to advice your fellow hyenas to leave the enemy and join the struggle or do you aspire to hide some where else and fill your belly with the "frifaarii" you got from your "gooftaa" Meles???? If you join the struggle and do something better for the people, your sin might be erased in heaven. Otherwise, you will be thrown to hell.

Gurbattii
Gurbattii
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