Ethiopia - Elias Kifle Pleading to Protest against UN Sanctions on Eritrea?

Alex Birhanu - alexbirhanu@yahoo.com

Introduction:

Elias Kifle of EthiopianEritrean review, the well known Issayas Afewerki boot-licker in Diaspora, is an impostor amidst the well known Ethiopian community in Washington DC. Usually, he pretends as a stout Ethiopian but in vain. As I heard from several other sources who know him closer, he is actually a hired agent paid by Afewerki and his PFDJ-military-junta to mislead Diaspora Ethiopians on issues pertaining to Eritrean realities and what Afewerki conkers to preside on regional matters.

A recent case in point worth noting here is his call on East Africans and implicitly Ethiopians alike in his Afewerki paid mouthpiece website to go out and demonstrate against the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) sanctions of December 23, 2009 on Eritrea. In this scribble Elias is begging Ethiopians in Diaspora to protest against UNSC-sanctions; and in support of rescuing Issayas Afewerki and his PFDJ-military junta from the embargo imposed on them. This is a clear evidence of Elias Kifle's stubborn and continued servitude to Issayas Afewerki and his PFDJ-junta as a boot-licker; and as a reliable conduit for Shaabia’s charm offensive on the Western World. Thus far one can refer to streams of invectives scribbles that Elias kifle has been throwing at organizations that courageously expose the symbiotic relations between Afewerki and Al-Shabab.

A year ago, in January 2009, Elias Kifle had no bad feelings at all when he publicly proclaimed on his web-page tyrant Afewerki of Eritrea - as Man of the Year. This was already sheer mockery and poor style of provocation. As far the wider world knows it for fact, Issayas Afewerki can’t be recognized as a man of democracy. After all, Afewerki and his PFDJ military junta still continue to implement harsh and indiscriminate methods of control on the Eritrean urban dwellers, peasants and pastoralists alike. These militaristic controls are varied in types including random roundups and house-to-house searches purportedly targeting ‘draft evaders,’ and conscripts suspected to be away without leave. Such indiscriminate roundups are implemented all over Eritrea under the command of the five major military commanders in charge of the current military administrative operations which replaced civil administration in 2001. The objective of the PFDJ-junta’s roundups is to terrorize the entire society and prevent any form of political disobedience. A clear indication of the spread of terror is apparent from a recent policy ushered by Issayas Afewerki, which collectively targets parents or relatives of ‘absconders’. Hence, in typical authoritarian fashion, Issayas Afewerki and his military junta continue to punish parents whose children have left the country to escape from continued subjugation and abuse.

Begging Ethiopians in Diaspora to protest against UNSC-Sanctions?

Few days ago, with his usual astonishing message, what Elias Kifle wrote to rescue Issayas Afewerki and his PFDJ-junta from the UNSC-sanctions comes out of his muddles as quoted here in below:

“Eritrean communities around the world are organizing a worldwide protest demonstration calling for the annulment of the ill-advised U.N. Security Council resolution against Eritrea that was passed in December 2009. Eritrea is being victimized for standing up on the side of the oppressed people of … Somalia ... When some misguided U.S. Department of State officials were unable to get a bill passed in the U.S. Senate against Eritrea; they gathered some corrupt African leaders such as Uganda's Museveni and pushed a resolution through the U.N. Security Council. The people of … all Horn of Africa countries stand with Eritrea in opposing the resolution… Let's stand in solidarity with our Eritrean brothers and sisters on February 22” (http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/12458).

Let us face it; Elias’s mockery and subterfuge put aside, majority Ethiopians acknowledge Issayas Afewerki as nothing but: ‘God father of all troubles infested within East Africa’. Afewerki is known for muddling in all directions starting from Sudan in the North down to Somalia in South East; From South Sudan and Northern Uganda in Central Africa; down to Rwanda and Burundi in Southern Africa region. In fact, Afewerki is the mother of all troubles breeding terrorist actions through Shaabia and Al-Shabab gangsters. That being the reality, Elias Kifle, the amatory website editor, is not even to shy back from his continuous commitment of spreading DC-fabricated and malicious news. Nor does he try to improve himself even after residing in Washington DC for over two decades now. Elias Kifle knows well Issayas Afewerki’s contempt against international condemnation. And yet, he is mockingly charging fire on already negatively unfolding reality within and outside Eritrea as if he can fool the world equipped with fast moving IT-mechanisms. Elias Kifle, as a barren bushy haired reporter is nothing but a chicken-headed person daring to label collectively all African leaders indiscriminately as thieves. But who does he think he is? Leave alone to mange as a heavy responsibility as being tasked with national leadership, he is not even able to put his bed room where he sleeps in good order; nor does he administer his website in fairness with those who aid him around. Recently, a co-worker was strongly attacked by Elias Kifle for commenting on an article submitted for publication by an Eritrean who resents on Afewarki’s tyrannical regime.

Honestly speaking, I’m ashamed of reading, among others, Elias Kifle’s 2-scribblings: (1) Informing in January 2009 the Ethiopians in Diaspora that the Eritrean Tyrant is the person of the year (by claiming that the selection is based on the contribution Afewarki has made for the betterment of Ethiopia). (2) Asking Ethiopians and people of Eastern Africa to go out and demonstrate on February 22, 2010 against the UNSC-sanctions imposed on Afewarki and his military junta. We know for sure no one will take this sham call for serious. But for the hake of it I wanted to comment on his scribble for the record and for any future eventualities and incidences where Elias Kifle may deep his nose into stubbornly and foolishly.

Elias Kifle’s and Issayas Afewerki’s joint simplistic strategy is to attract attention of the Western World and especially big powers; but USA is now seriously sick and tired of Afewerki’s utopia think-thank and his military junta that’s sponsoring not only terrorists within Eritrea, but also supporting those Al-Qaeda linked organisations like Al-Shabab within the region. In fact Elias Kifle and Afewerki work in clandestine hand and gloves by supporting terrorist groups like ONLF in Ogaden, OLF and other splinter groups within the region. Now when Issayas Afewerki sensed that he may be ousted off his throne in Asmara he started to beg Diaspora people of the region through Elias Kifle for his rescue; asking them actually to kneel down and beg for his mercy from the world community. Elias Kifle must realize by now that the snakes pit in Asmara is finally being targeted at for its demise; and stop aiding Issayas Afewerki’s tyrannical regime and other terrorist organizations in the region. Or else he too should face the heavy costs for committing treason not only against Ethiopia, but also against the USA, where he lives in comfort and scribbles his diatribes the way he sees it fit for his Shaabia, ONLF, OLF and Al-Shabab consumers.

Why Elias Kifle so adores Shaabia tugs like the ONLF, OLF and Al-Shabab is for simple hidden benefits at the cost of mocking on Ethiopia and Ethiopian national affairs. Thus, all Elias does in his tabloid website – “Ethiopian Review” is nothing but broadcast insults, slanders, blackmails and homemade tantrums. Elias Kifle’s primary intention of dwelling on such travesties actually reflects his malicious past, which many Ethiopians in Diaspora have now clearly understood and ignored from visiting his website.

Concluding Remarks:
That the UNSC imposed sanctions on Eritrea means that Afewerki and company are now globally recognized as running a pariah fiefdom. This is proven by the simple fact that UNSC veto- empowered nations like: USA, Russia, China, France, and the UK consider Eritrea not as a stable or a normal nation, but as a fiefdom led by an autocrat whose days are being counted. The lawless nature of Afewerki and his PFDJ-military junta have finally trapped them directly in world arena; live alone Africa.

On February 22nd, it is clear that part of the elite group (Eritrean highlanders in most cases) may finally be coming out of their comfort zones in support of their tyrant kin Afewerki and his PFDJ-junta half-heartedly. But it is already too late now even if they protest against the already implemented UNSC-sanctions. All the circumstances around the embargo are tightening by the day. Afewerki’s arrogant smile, the bank accounts that draw hard currency from Diaspora, the Kalashnikov supply will all eventually dry out. So my clear message for supporters of arrogant Afewerki is: Embrace democracy and fair play; get rid of Afewerki and his unimplemented draft constitution; call upon all ethnic groups within Eritrea as stakeholders to sit around a discussion table and come up with a new workable constitution that reflects the people, the cultures, ethos, and the land. Decentralize Eritrean government where Dankaliaya is run by an Afar local government; Kunama land run by a kunama local regime, and so on; and the same goes to Saho, Seraie, Akaleguzay, Hamasen and other communities within Eritrea. Then and only then can we talk of a representative federal Eritrean government concerned for all.

At the end of the day, Issayas Afewerki and his PFDJ-junta, when left as cornered as they are currently by the world community, they will eventually resort to compliance with all the UNSC- sanctions, dropping all the empty bravados and boastings aside. And for all I know, Elias Kifle will, when cornered, consistent with his hitherto behaviour may shamefacedly disappear from the scene, with all his empty bravados and boastings amounting to nothing. Finally, for as long as the current repressive and undemocratic Afewerki’s tyrannical system is in place, Eritrea’s problems will only increase and eventually endanger the very existence of Eritrea as nation