THE UGLY FACE OF DOUBLE
STANDARD
By Wondimu Mekonnen,
(UK) (5th July 2016)
It is frequently heard that campaigners
saying democracy has no colour. Oh yes it has! We have seen what had happened
to our compatriot Andargachew Tsige, haven’t we? It is also being heard
shouting slogans like, “Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere!” Not
true!!! Habtamu Ayalew is dying in hospital bed denied of going abroad to get
treatment to save his life. In reality, nobody cares, until such a crime
against humanity knocks at the doors of the interest of those whose voices
matter. Injustice in one place is not alright if it is against the interest of
these super-powers, but in some place it appears to be okay because it doesn’t
affect the interest of the UK and USA governments. Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein
have to die horrific death because they went against the interest of the USA
and the UK, citizens of the world now clearly see that.
Everyone have heard the USA and
the UK consistently moaning and demonising President Mugabe of Zimbabwe for
killing people who opposed to his administration. What a hypocrisy! We have
rarely heard any serious voice of protest coming out of their mouths when their
pet regime in Addis Ababa kept mowing down protestors and littering the streets
of Addis Ababa with dead bodies of Ethiopians. At least the USA State
Department for Human Rights have been exposing these atrocities, but the USA
Government is not reading them. Worse, the UK, who are the top funders of the
Ethiopian regime, busy training the police force and security had not been
heard of uttering any word of serious concern against crime on humanity in
Ethiopia. The Government of President Obama unashamedly praises the democratic
achievements of one of the most brutal regimes in Africa, the TPLF
administration, regardless of what is out there to be seen with naked eyes.
President Obama did not blink to endorse the TPLF’s 100% controlled Parliament
as a democratically elected Government. Shame on you, Sir! Shame! Shame!
Everyone, including this author thought President Obama was one of the fair
minded leaders of this world. How wrong we were!
The Ethiopian regime
of the late Prime Minister of Meles Zenawi and the new Prime Minister Hailemariam
Dessalegn has been doing the same thing over the last 5 or 6 years, not just to
700,000 but around 5,000,000 people, in Gambella, in the Omo Valley, Afar, Addis
Ababa, in fact, around the towns and cities of Ethiopia, but no words of
protest are coming from the mouths of the leaders of the UK and USA. The total
silence on the gross violation of human rights is deafening. The UK and the
USA, where so many Ethiopian refugees reside are turning blind eyes and deaf
ears but moaning about so many refugees crossing the boarder. First, stop nurturing the dictators that are forcing the people into exile. The “land grab” crime is a well-documented crime that the USA and the UK
are well aware of but doing nothing.
The land policy of the
Ethiopian regime should have deterred the funders, particularly the UK and the
USA, from pumping in millions of dollars and pounds, the hard earned tax-payers
money, into the coffers of the dictators until the Ethiopian people have the right to own lands. The land should
not be held by any government, leave alone by the brutal ones, like that of
Ethiopia, to be used as a weapon to suppress the rights of the people. The
ordinary citizens of the world would like to see firm principles from those
with advanced economies like that of the UK and the USA to adhere to. The
Ethiopian regime declared that all the land belonged to the state and could
evict anyone from the land, with the only one right, that is to carry the walls and the
roofs their houses anywhere, although we have recently witnessed windows and doors were
confiscated. Hundreds of lives of our Oromo compatriots were lost when the
regime started to evict farmers in the nearby vicinity of Addis Ababa to make
way for the so called city “developers”, which are primarily the TPLF
officials, to build house to be rented out to foreigners for hard currencies.
 |
| TPLF official constructions |
If that crime had happened in the
Zimbabwe of Mugabe the cry would have deafened the ears of citizens of the
world. It appears to be alright because it only happened to Ethiopians by the
UK and the USA pet (sorry "puppet" is much more honourable) regime.
Only last week, the men of
Hailemariam Dessalegn moved into Lafto in the suburb district of Addis Ababa with
graders and bulldozers to raise down houses that were claimed to be built “illegally.”
Those houses were built on the farm lands acquired from the previous owners,
the farmers, long time before plans were required to build houses in
those areas. A three day old infant and the mother was bulldozed to death by
the regimes demolishing squad, forcing 10,000 residents on the street. Why is this okay in the eyes of the USA and the
UK? Is it because it happened to an Ethiopian infant and an Ethiopian mother? People’s
protest were met by gun shots leaving 10s of civilians dead and two policemen[ii].
The Addis Ababa TPLF Police Commissioner Yihdego Seyoum had vowed to avenge the
death of the two policemen, but who would avenge the death of hundreds thousands
of civilians to date by the Police to make way for the land grabbers and the
TPLF officials who are madly building house in Addis Ababa and other cities?
The fact that Yihdego (a clear Tigre name) of TPLF is the Police Commissioner shows
that Addis Ababa is under siege by the Tigray People’s Liberation front, doing
what they wished with the capital of Ethiopia, before breaking away their
province of Tigray as an independent republic one day. It is like having IRA in
West Minister, for heaven’s sake!
The land was actually bought by
the residents from the farmers who owned them before as that was possible to do so
then and also nobody thought the city would expand that far. Many of the women
who bought the land and built houses went to the Arab countries to work as
maids and saved money to buy those pieces of lands to start life in their own
country. Unfortunately, their own country is occupied by fascist like regime of
the TPLF, like the Nazis who would never consider any other human being as human
apart from the Woyyane supporting Tigres (not all Tigres but Woyyane supporting
Tigres, I repeat). It is an apartheid system practice, by the blacks on blacks!
Cry mother Ethiopia!
The following picture shows some
belongings taken out in a rush by the residents before their house was
demolished and they were thrown on the street to become homeless.
This racists are committing crime
against humanity, but the champions of democracy, the UK and the USA who lead
their army into Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya to protect the “civil society” did
not raise any voice of concern with regards to what had just happened in Ethiopia. DOUBLE STANDARD! Nobody is asking the USA and the UK to march their armies to protect Ethiopia, but all that is being asked is to condemn those atrocities and stop funding the brutal regime until it respects the rights of Ethiopians. Is that too much to ask?
In the UK, even squatters have
the right. You just don’t push them forcefully like dirt. There is a
process which is approved by the law of the land. Some of the houses demolished
even in the city centre had plans inherited from the fathers and forefathers but the TPLF has to grab them by only one explanation – “the land belongs to the state”.
In the above picture, one can see
how perplexed people stood dumbfound among the rubbles, confused and not
knowing where to go or what to do next.
The next picture also shows the
homeless people trying to save what they could.
The reason given for demolishing
“illegal residences” by UK and USA pet
“government of Ethiopia” was exactly the same reason that was given by the
Mugabe regime. Why is the silence? Why the USA government, who have an Embassy in Addis Ababa
saying nothing about it? Why is the UK not as vocal as it was in the case of
Mugabe of Zimbabwe? Why the television screen went blank on the matter of a
great concern at such a magnitude against humanity? Why are not the newspapers writing about it?
Where is the BBC World Service?
DOUBLE STANDARD IN ITS UGLIEST FORM!
