By: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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In five earlier articles titled “Opposition Party Offices Closed in Fake Ethiopia Elections, MP Dr. Jigi Demekssa Reveals,” “MP Dr. G. Jigi Demekssa Calls US, EU: Support to Fake Ethiopia Contradicts All Democratic Ideals,” “There Are No Elections but Real War in Ethiopia Today, Denounces MP Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa,” “MP Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa: Task of Every Oromo is the Elimination of the Abyssinians from Oromia” and “Sudan and the Oromo Nation are the Natural Allies against the Abyssinian TPLF Ethiopianist Tyranny,” I published the previous parts of an interview that I was honoured to have with the leading Oromo parliamentarian, Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa. With the present article, I complete the publication of Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa’s interview.

Dr. Demekssa was forced to leave his country and fight from abroad for freedom, liberation, national independence and secession of Oromia. Dr. Demekssa’s revelations should become a matter of utmost concern for international bodies, governments, statesmen and politicians, diplomats and intellectuals, journalists and Human Rights activists worldwide.

The forthcoming electoral fraud in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) is a Shame for the Mankind in its entirety. Reaction must be taken in order to hold responsible and accountable the perpetrators of the electoral fraud, who are also charged with the most odious Crime against the Mankind: the diffusion of the racist theory of Ethiopianism, the falsehood of an Ethiopian nation within which they intentionally attempt to exterminate once forever more than 15 different African nations with great past and noble traditions.

Interview with Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa — Part 6
OFDM Executive Committee Member
Head of the Political and Organizational Dept.
MP for Ethiopian Federal Parliament
Chairman of Oromo Parliamentarians Council

25.   What are the major issues in today’s Oromia? Economy? Human Rights? Environment? Development?

The Oromian economy is currently fully controlled by Males Zenawi and his adviser Nuwy Gbra Ab and their subservient puppets, the Minster of Finance Ahmed Sufian and the Minister of Industry and Trade Girma Biru. These are all TPLF gang members and have absolutely no idea about the socioeconomic realities that prevail in Occupied Oromia.

The Oromia land-grabbing is today the most preoccupying matter for all the Oromos because sizeable lots of fertile land are being sold for 100 years to Indian, Saudis, Sudanese, Europeans and other businessmen. Oromia’s surface totals more than 350000 km2, but the precipitated rhythm of these illegal and absolutely invalid transactions consists in an unprecedented phenomenon in Eastern Africa. I will give you now some examples.

Bangalore-based Karuturi Global Ltd., which is currently leasing more than 300,000 hectares (765,000 acres) of local land, sold out an area larger than the entire Luxembourg (ca. 2600 km2) for only 15 birr (US $ 1.18) per hectare per year.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, has “bought” and currently “owns” a land lot of 20,000 m2 near the town Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) in Occupied Oromia.

Last year, Ismael Omar Guelleh, the president of Djibouti, “bought” a land lot of 10000 m2 in Bishoftu in order to have a house built there, and more recently he “bought” another 30000 m2 in Bale for agricultural purposes — all in Occupied Oromia.

Furthermore, his woman, Khadra Mohammed, the first lady of Djibouti, “bought” a land lot of 20 hectares in Sebeta (Oromia) in order to set up a flower farm.

The National Bank of Egypt announced that during this year they will buy a land lot of 20000 hectares to invest in agriculture.

It is noteworthy that no less than 240 Saudi companies have applied and got the governmental license for investment in agriculture. Some of these companies have started investing and operating; in their totality, the Saudi investment companies are expected to invest US $2.5 billion in these projects for which a sizeable part of Oromian land has been unlawfully sold to them.

A German company has been working for some time in bio-fuel project that involved an area of ca. 13000 hectares.

Another German entrepreneur has been recently allocated an area of ca. 150000 ha for livestock project.

Notorious for his support to the racist TPLF dictator Meles Zenawi, the Ethio-Saudi entrepreneur Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi Al Amoudi acquired many vast pieces of land in various parts of Occupied Oromia, notably in the periphery of Finfinnee, in the zones Arsi, Gurji (more than half the area) and Bale, and in the West Wellega district of Mansibu.
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Last year, in the first months, the TPLF Mafia lords sold unofficially to personal friends and acquaintances areas totalling 607760 hectares — all in Occupied Oromia.

According to recommendations made by specialists and experts, the disproportionate sales of Oromian land at incredibly low fake prices, which occur without involving preconditions and special agreements, can end up in irreparable disasters.

•   – Land deals must be assessed in the light of the often complex overall package they are part of, including commitments on investment, infrastructure development and employment — the “land grab” emphasized by some media is only part of the equation;

•   – Land leases, rather than purchases, are predominant in Africa, and host country governments tend to play a key role in allocating them;

•   – Land fees and other monetary transfers are generally small (for instance, three dollars to $ 12 per hectare per year in Mali and Ethiopia), not least due to the difficulty of setting land prices in absence of well-established formal land markets;

•   – Host country benefits are mainly seen in the form of investor commitments on investment levels, employment creation and infrastructure development

•   – Although the structure of current land deals suggests that these commitments may be difficult to enforce.

More analytically: http://www.inwent.org/ez/articles/155062/index.en.shtml
(an in-depth analysis by Lorenzo Cotula and Sonja Vermeulen)

For all of us, the Oromo Nation who are the undisputed proprietary of all these land lots, as well as of the territory of Occupied Oromia, the aforementioned — and similar, past or future — transactions of the undemocratic, totalitarian TPLF government are illegal and absolutely void. The unlawful foreign and Abyssinian owners will certainly lose their monies in this shameful affair, because the transactions will be cancelled. They cannot deal with a tyrant and illegal tenant of our land.

26.   How happy are you with the stance of the Europeans, statesmen, politicians, academia, and intellectuals toward the grave violations of Human Rights in Abyssinia?

Western countries have created fake colonial borders which caused a real political volcano in many African countries across the continent. Until we finally change these colonial borders, the political volcano will continue erupting every now and then, producing genocides, massacres, atrocities and all sorts of calamities.

It is essential to note that the problems between the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi have not in fact been created by these two nations, but they are the direct result of the colonization, and the unlawful, immoral and shameful relationship established between the former colonizers and their proxies, today’s fake leaders who are forced to rule tyrannically and within unacceptable and impossible borders that by themselves generate troubles because they represent nothing. Due to the colonialism and its side effects, the Oromo Nation does not have a most deserved position among the UN General Assembly members, but has disappeared, divided among Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

For Western politicians and diplomats, guys like Meles Zenawi, who are ready always to disregard and undermine the interests of diverse subjugated nations and disrespect the interests of the entire African continent, are useful and functional; that’s why they praise them so much. The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change is an example; the shameful, catastrophic and utterly Anti-African positions supported by the Tigray Mafia lord Meles Zenawi fully exposed his corrupted personality.
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Even in the 21st century, the Western countries failed to demonstrate a genuine interest in the democratization of African countries that they condemned to undeserved tyrannies in the first place. I have shaped the idea that they must imagine that Democracy, Freedom, National Independence and Progress are ideals and concepts good only for themselves, not the rest. When it comes to Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, the Western governments are interested only generating conflicts, wars and destruction. That is paranoid and inhuman.

27.   What could they do in your opinion?

Ethiopia is indeed a land of silence and human rights violations, as I said in a Complaint Statement that I submitted to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Africa Department. The world community has forgotten all our appeals, and today the Oromos are among the voiceless nations at the margin of the international society. I can use the description I made for the HRW to specify what the Western countries could do:

“Meles Zenawi has killed tens of thousands of innocent Oromos and other nations in Ethiopia. Meles is much more brutal than Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Milosevic of Yugoslavia, and Idi Amin Dada of Uganda. The difference is he wants to play a different card at different time to show as if he is Western-friendly. He is the most silent killer ever. While we expect him in the Hague, the support European power’s definitely discourage the struggle for justice and democratic reformation in Africa and else where.

Innocent Oromo individuals are being killed in cold blood and denied the honor to get normal burial, some of the dead are left in the forest for hyenas and wild beasts to feast on them. This is what happened in Ciro town in Western Hararge two years ago, the Gara Suufi massacre.

Oromo students who staged for peace protests against the injustice being committed against their people were beaten severely, denied their graduation certificate, dismissed from school and shot dead in the school compound – for no crime committed until today.

There are more than 40000 Oromo political prisoners in Ethiopia, most of them were tortured, shot dead or disabled forever in the same prisons. Oromo intellectuals, business men, farmers and civil servants are detained, tortured and humiliated in a way which can be related to systematic eradication of this big nation.

The most shocking tragedy of this regime is that elected parliamentarians and members of other political parties were subjected to executions and other acts of inhumane treatment. For instance, Mr. Adane was an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament representing the Oromo Peoples Congress Party (OPC). A week after the election of May 2005 a police shot and killed Mr. Adane in Arsi Negele town.

Oromo refugees in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Kenya are under unprecedented suffering after fleeing their land, deported in contrary to international convention, and persecuted for the last 18 years of TPLF regime. In Somalia (Bossaso), 65 Oromos were brutally murdered and more than 100 others were injured in this incident. Among international news outlets, Reuters reported that at least 20 were killed and over 100 were injured. Some other sources have also reported that about 250 homes have been burned. Back in November 06, 2007, 10 Oromo refugees were reported to have been executed in their apartment in Nairobi, Kenya, and killed others are punished by death sentence.

As a way to stay on power, the TPLF regime is putting different ethnic groups against each other almost continuously everywhere in Ethiopia, a land known by tolerance and coexistence for centuries is getting the vice-versa reality. As example, I can mention the Benishangul Gumuz civil war against civil Oromo natives which caused thousands of victims”.

These are few examples of the Human Rights violations being committed against the Oromo Nation and ignored by world community. The Western countries can do everything that it takes to put an end to this situation.

Oromo Parliamentarians: 13 MP’s have been forced to exile, but the world community, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), keep silent. The Western countries can stop their silence and act according to the ideals that they have long declared as theirs.

I therefore ask again the World Community to make high pressure on Meles Zenawi and force him to stop these evildoings. I call the World Community to respond to all these tragedies, according their solemnly declared humanitarian and democratic principles.

In parallel, I also call the Oromo Diaspora and all Oromo freedom fighters to underscore that starting by Monday a new face of our struggle for National Liberation must begin and all the Oromo leaders must come to the front of this national struggle. All the Oromos who belong to fronts, movements and parties must be mobilized at all levels for this struggle. Every division must stop now and forever. We need to deploy the best coordinated effort at all levels, political and diplomatic, military and socioeconomic; the struggle for the National Liberation of Oromia must become our only concern, and the action must prevail over theoretical talking. Oromia shall be free!

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   By: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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In four articles titled “Opposition Party Offices Closed in Fake Ethiopia Elections, MP Dr. Jigi Demekssa Reveals,” “MP Dr. G. Jigi Demekssa Calls US, EU: Support to Fake Ethiopia Contradicts All Democratic Ideals,” “There Are No Elections but Real War in Ethiopia Today, Denounces MP Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa,” and “MP Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa: Task of Every Oromo is the Elimination of the Abyssinians from Oromia,” I published several parts of an interview that I was honoured to have with the leading Oromo parliamentarian, Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa. In the present article, I publish the fifth part of Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa’s interview which will be completed with the next article.

Dr. Demekssa was forced to leave his country and fight from abroad for freedom, liberation, national independence and secession of Oromia. Dr. Demekssa’s revelations should become a matter of utmost concern for international bodies, governments, statesmen and politicians, diplomats and intellectuals, journalists and Human Rights activists worldwide.

The forthcoming electoral fraud in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) is a Shame for the Mankind in its entirety. Reaction must be taken in order to hold responsible and accountable the perpetrators of the electoral fraud, who are also charged with the most odious Crime against the Mankind: the diffusion of the racist theory of Ethiopianism, the falsehood of an Ethiopian nation within which they intentionally attempt to exterminate once forever more than 15 different African nations with great past and noble traditions.

Interview with Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa — Part 5
OFDM Executive Committee Member
Head of the Political and Organizational Dept.
MP for Ethiopian Federal Parliament
Chairman of Oromo Parliamentarians Council

21.   Do you expect developments in the Sudan (South, Darfur, Kordofan, etc.) to affect Abyssinia?

Yes, any change in the Sudan can affect or exercise pressure or influence on Ethiopia; unfortunately, the Sudanese government has failed so far to realize the secret cooperation between the US, EU governments, and the racist Abyssinian tyranny, which poses a major threat for Sudan’s existence, and consists in a real conspiracy for the outright majority of the East African peoples and ethno-religious groups.

More precisely, to give you an example, at the moment, the TPLF regime has been involved in the South Sudan, acting as an agent for the US, and providing training, logistic and political support to groups that want to secede from Khartoum and offer South Sudan’s rich natural resources to Western companies, multinationals and conglomerates. The criminal Tigray Mafia that rules the colonial state of Ethiopia plans to extract some profit in the process.

Despite the fact, the Sudanese government has not reacted as it should in order to protect the Sudan’s national interests. Sudan could effectively and irreversibly outmanoeuvre the US, EU and Ethiopian machination and energetically demolish Ethiopia by offering great support to the OLF.

In fact, the Oromo Nation and the peoples of Sudan share a common Hamitic — Kushitic History, Culture, and above all, socioeconomic and political interests of the utmost importance.

Contrarily, neither the peoples of Sudan nor the Oromos and the other Hamitic — Kushitic or Nilo-Saharan peoples of the Ethiopian colonial tyranny have anything in common with the outcast Abyssinian tribes who — with the help of the colonial France and England — expanded in the late 19th century at the detriment of so many nations and ethno-religious groups.

Quite unfortunately, and despite the existing common need for cooperation and concert between Khartoum and the Oromo political leadership, the government of Sudan has properly speaking sold the Oromo Nation to the enemy of all the African nations in the name of the present, delusional stability and sustainable development that several intruders portrayed to the Khartoum authorities as real, thus deceiving the Sudanese.

Without freedom and liberation of the Oromos and without the emergence of an independent “Kushitic Republic of Oromo Ethiopia,” there will never be peace, stability and sustainability in the wider Horn of Africa region. This reality must be made understood to the Western governments that have caused so many troubles to the entire African continent.

22.   Do you expect developments in Kenya (collapse of the governmental alliance) to affect Abyssinia?

The government of Kenya is a most corrupted authority; to judge upon its nature, there is not much difference between them; for PNU and ODM, what is at stake is neither constitutional nor political differences, but their respective leaders’ personal financial interests and their greed for money which leads them to corruption.

If you remember, after the last election and the subsequent death of thousands of people, what counted in the agreement for the coalition government were not the real hot issues, namely the people who lost their lives, Kenya’s possible democratization or the equitable socioeconomic development of the country, but about the different ministerial positions and the resources one can control from each of them.

People all over the world imagine Kenya is a peaceful country in East Africa, but there hasn’t been any significant development there because of the corruption. If at a certain moment the ODM decided to leave, this could lead to the breakdown of the coalition government. There would be a major political and constitutional crisis of course, but still Kibaki’s government would continue ruling the country.

Bonaya Adhi Godana (born September 2, 1952, in Dukana, Kenya and murdered April 10, 2006, in an air crash in Marsabit, Kenya) was Kenya’s foreign minister from January 1998 until 2001. From 2002 till his death in 2006, he was the deputy leader of the opposition KANU party. Except him, 13 other influential persons, doctors, generals and MP’s were also killed in that air crash. President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity announced that it “would continue ruling as if nothing happened”. According to different sources, the air crash was machinated by the Ethiopian and Kenyan security forces in close cooperation in order to eliminate the well educated, smart, and politically highly influential Oromos from the Kenyan government. The cause of the air crash was never really investigated by third parties that would issue an objective and impartial report. In Kenya, the corruption has become an inherent part of the culture starting from the presidential palace and reaching the small shop keepers.

23.   Do you expect developments in Somalia (rise of the Shabaab in the South) to affect Abyssinia?

The Somali Shabaab and other groups do not have any relations with the racist and tyrannical Tigray administration of Ethiopia. The Somalis have been without government for ca. 20 years; their struggle to re-establish a national government in Somalia is absolutely rightful because every country and every nation have the right to form their own parliament, government and other institutions. In this case, the US and the Abyssinian dictator Zenawi wanted to put in place a puppet government to serve their interests and catastrophic plans for the entire region. The fake transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia cannot bring any positive result for the brave Somali nation.

24.   Do you expect developments in Eritrea (War with Abyssinia or Djibouti) to affect Abyssinia?

For Eritrea, a war with Djibouti is unnecessary; it can trigger regional destabilization and cause great damage for all the countries in the area, not just for one. The Abyssinian dictator Zenawi carried out a provocative propaganda for the dispute between Eritrea and Djibouti. The Eritrean government is not made of fools who want to trigger a war with Djibouti. Sometimes, the conflicts are due to external machinations and countries are pushed to war by the third parties, as it happened in the case of the First Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait. This is an unnecessary development that leads to impasse and disaster. Similar disputes and developments in the Horn of Africa region are promoted by lobbies and establishments that deploy every effort to divert and cancel the rightful struggle of the region tyrannized nations for freedom and national liberation. If unpredicted developments happen, we will be in front of a totally different situation.

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   By: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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In three articles published over the last few days under the title “Opposition Party Offices Closed in Fake Ethiopia Elections, MP Dr. Jigi Demekssa Reveals,” “MP Dr. G. Jigi Demekssa Calls US, EU: Support to Fake Ethiopia Contradicts All Democratic Ideals,” and “There Are No Elections but Real War in Ethiopia Today, Denounces MP Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa,” I published the early parts of an interview that I was honoured to have with the leading Oromo parliamentarian, Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa. In the present article, I publish the fourth part of Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa’s interview which will be completed in several forthcoming articles.

Dr. Demekssa was forced to leave his country and fight from abroad for freedom, liberation, national independence and secession of Oromia. Dr. Demekssa’s revelations should become a matter of utmost concern for international bodies, governments, statesmen and politicians, diplomats and intellectuals, journalists and Human Rights activists worldwide.

The forthcoming electoral fraud in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) is a Shame for the Mankind in its entirety. Reaction must be taken in order to hold responsible and accountable the perpetrators of the electoral fraud, who are also charged with the most odious Crime against the Mankind: the diffusion of the racist theory of Ethiopianism, the falsehood of an Ethiopian nation within which they intentionally attempt to exterminate once forever more than 15 different African nations with great past and noble traditions.

Interview with Dr. Getachew Jigi Demekssa — Part 4
OFDM Executive Committee Member
Head of the Political and Organizational Dept.
MP for Ethiopian Federal Parliament
Chairman of Oromo Parliamentarians Council

17.   What should be the first concern for the Oromo opposition after the electoral fraud?

All the opposition parties must defend the voice of the Oromo people. In the 2005 election, when the people and the students started protesting against the electoral fraud and took to the streets, most of the leaders did not support the protesters, as it happened in Kenya or Zimbabwe. Worse, the renowned Carter Center that had sent observers announced that the election was fair; similarly, EU governments approved of this falsehood, with the only honourable exception of the European Parliament Deputy, Ms. Ana Gomes, the EU election mission head.

The 2010 election results are already known. What is left is to announce the margin of victory that the ruling party will decide to attribute to themselves in an effort to fully please their local and — mainly — foreign financiers.

As I am in continuous contact with my electoral basis and Oromos from any remote location in Occupied Oromia, I can share with you my data and my understanding of the situation. Throughout Oromia, 99% of the people are ready to give their support to the opposition parties. Similar is the situation in every other annexed territory and land, in Ogaden, in the Afar land, in Benishangul, and in the South. Tyrannized people throughout Abyssinia are also ready to defend their political volition by all means if the oppositions leaders are now ready to stand by their people up to the end.

Even without the support of the international community, the oppressed people of Ethiopia can oppose and turn down any governmental action taken against them. All the tyrannized people and their leaders must therefore be ready for all types of reaction.

18.   Do you believe the Oromo opposition can offer a reliable alternative to the subjugated Oromo Nation?

This is our last chance to bring forth an alternative and to produce a fundamental change in the country, to put an end to the present situation and to make the freedom of every nation respected throughout Ethiopia. People throughout the colonial empire, and their leaders must be fully aware that the Ethiopianist gang around Meles Zenawi is not ready to proceed with the democratization of the country. This is so because any step toward democratization would automatically significant loss of power, financial benefits and security for this race-based gang. It is an illusion to imagine that the Tigray Mafia gang may be ready to lose (on annual basis) an income totalling billions of dollars, which is due to illegal monopolies guaranteed only by means of totalitarian power.

As far as the Oromo opposition parties are concerned, at this very moment, the possibilities are certainly limited, but if we all persist and demonstrate total commitment to our goal, we can open the path toward freedom and liberation, and in the process get support from abroad.

19.   If not, what should they do in order to gain in terms of credibility and effectiveness?

We must fight; we must engage a frontal battle against TPLF. For all of us, the tyrannized nation of the Oromos, the only solution is to fight for our freedom and oppose all of our enemies. We have human resources, millions of people ready to liberate Oromia, so the gun we will get from our enemies themselves!

The most important point is to stop being fair about anything, to stop being the nation that pays sacrifices, to stop being a nation living under conditions of double slavery.

We are the only to liberate ourselves; a nation cannot be liberated by another nation, except to face another type of slavery. Real freedom is obtained only through total commitment to liberation — and this must be demonstrated by the suffering nation — not others.

I would also like to add that those who live on Earth without freedom will certainly fail to find peace in the Hereafter.

Last year, I was in Atlanta, US, and I had the opportunity to deliberate with many of our leaders and intellectuals; I strongly recommended to them that we all Oromos have to be ready to sacrifice ourselves first, and thus give our youth the best example of how our National Liberation can be achieved. I find this far better than blaming one another for the wasted time that left our Nation without freedom.

Either in Occupied Oromia or abroad, my suggestion was only one, and it has never changed; every Oromo must eliminate all the occupants who are on the holy soil of our fatherland. Every Oromo has the national task to carry out whatever bravery it takes to physically eliminate every illegal occupant of our country.

The only way to liberate Oromia is the participation of the entire Nation in an overwhelming effort to make the physical presence of every Abyssinian occupant of Oromia leave our country or die.

The dynamics of this effort will be thunderous; few will start and soon all the rest will follow in precipitation.

This is the only path to Freedom: if every Oromo decides to eliminate — by any means and without caring for the consequences — one Abyssinian illegal occupant of our fatherland, our freedom and national liberation will be a dream come true. This happened in every country when the liberation struggle reached a culmination and brought forth the most desired result, the National Self-determination.

20.   How do you evaluate the role of the Oromo Diaspora in the fight against Oromia’s occupation? Are you happy with it? What else would you suggest in this regard?

Today, the condition in which the Oromo Diaspora is found, and the actions that they undertake are for me more troublesome that the TPLF evildoings. Most of them deem correct to open a website and thence engage in interminable discussions and debates that damage the Oromo struggle and unity.

I have never encountered a similar situation back in Occupied Oromia; there we don’t know and cannot understand this sort of attitude. We are all One in our fight against the Ethiopianist regime of TPLF; there is no difference and there can’t be any division among us. Religion and clan matter not in Oromia. I still remember that back in 2006, Oromos of any faith and denomination, Muslims, Waaqeffataa and Christians prayed together in the same hall, in the same building.

At the time, the Abyssinian TPLF rulers were shocked because of the Oromo unity, and machinated an evil scheme to divide the Oromos as pr religion and clan in order to further exploit Oromia’s natural resources and extend the illegal occupation of our land. I must admit that, although the TPLF machinations failed totally throughout Occupied Oromia, they proved to be quite successful among the Oromo Diaspora. I can interpret this sad phenomenon in a way; as one can easily understand the Oromo Diaspora is constituted out of people who do not suffer anymore in the societies where they have been integrated, mainly in America, Europe, and Australia. Because of the rather relaxed life they enjoy, they fail to remember the situation they had lived in when back in Occupied Oromia, and they do not feel the extent of the Oromos’ suffering and the difficulties of the life in Occupied Oromia. I would however like to close this issue for the time being, and I would rather suggest to discuss this point after we liberate Oromia from our enemy.

I believe it is part of the national duty for the Oromo Diaspora to stop blaming the different Oromo organizations, movements and liberation fronts, as well as their leaders. Every Oromo, from any organization, from any position in a movement, did something positive for our struggle and truly nobody deserves the severe criticism and the extreme deprecation that I have at times noticed — with great sadness. All of them are ready to bring forth the changes that are needed, and the Oromo liberation depends on these changes whereto the Diaspora must contribute as well.

In addition, I believe that the Oromo Diaspora must realize that they have to make sacrifices, and give money, time and even their lives for the Freedom and the Liberation of our country.

It is absolutely unacceptable — and worse, it is totally un-Oromo and anti-Oromo — to see people ready to easily put the blame on many others, but unable to contribute to our national struggle even a tiny amount of money, let’s say US $ 10. This sort of people must stop immediately their tactics, useless and intentional criticism that generate an unnecessary environment helpful only to the enemies of the Oromo Nation. And any person who hasn’t slept even one night in the forest for our struggle for Oromia’s freedom is not entitled to open mouth criticism.

Our community back in Occupied Oromia and the Oromo Diaspora must reorganize and restructure themselves to fully and effectively adapt themselves to the needs of our liberation struggle and get prepared to undertake all it takes to physically eliminate or remove the last Abyssinian invader from the soil of Oromia.

My last suggestion in this regard is a recommendation to those Oromos from the Diaspora to read the articles published by Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, and in particular the following, which is posted on our website: “Oromo Action Plan for the Liberation of Oromia and the Destruction of Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia)“. 1

Note 1: I want to express personally my gratitude to Dr. Demekssa for his recommendation of my article; to me these words have greater value than all the prizes and the awards a scholar can have in this world. — Dr. Muhamamd Shamsaddin Megalommatis

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   By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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The unrepresentative tyrants of Africa who attended the Copenhagen summit must have been an excellent token at the hands of the colonial powers, England and France, that control the US establishment and utilize it in a way to perpetuate their grip on the world’s nations, oppressed peoples, and natural resources.

Although initially siding with China, Brazil and South Africa, the diplomats of many African countries that are mere colonial fabrications became at the end the puppets of Africa’s worst enemies.

An example is offered here:

“After overcoming the African objections in Copenhagen, negotiators appointed pairs of ministers from poor and rich nations to seek solutions to the most contentious issues ahead of the summit.

Ghana and Britain would examine ways to raise billions of dollars in new funds to help the poor, Grenada and Spain would look at disputes about sharing out the burden of emissions cuts by 2020. Singapore and Norway would look at a possible levy on bunker fuels to help raise funds”. (http://propagandapress.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/african-nations-boycott-copenhagen-climate-change-charade/)

In fact, China failed to offer the African peoples a comprehensive interpretation of the climate change and the Chinese stance to environmental matters. Then, the African diplomats turned to their opium, the colonial capitals and diplomats. The reason is simple; China has penetrated the African continent economically but this has little impact on the African policy making because the latter hinges mostly on the complex educational, cultural and political developments that took place in the Black Continent when China was absent.

The African tyrants share the same fate with the African peoples whom they mostly oppress, tyrannize and endanger through a perplex system that China has not even studied. However, the African elites, formed in their outright majority at the colonial capitals, cannot dissociate their interests and their fates from those of their masters who through interference and involvement ensured their socioeconomic and political rise back home. By so doing, the African elites, ignorant of the colonial strategy with respect to Africa (which happens to be most detrimental to all the African nations), actively dissociate themselves from the destiny of the populations they rule, control and oppress.

China’s relationship with the West has been most troublesome as well, for at least the past 170 years, ever since the Opium Wars started. The present leadership of China is aware of the plans of the Western leaderships against Beijing, Moscow, and the rise of an Asiatic landmass alliance; Beijing has also correctly assessed the importance of Africa for the colonial powers.

More recently and more importantly, China actively opposed in Copenhagen the CO2 fallacy that has become the focus of the evil diplomacies of England, France and America. This is greatly significant for the African peoples who have not been taken into account by the schemers who are hidden behind the CO2 fallacy.

Certainly, Africa is the continent par excellence where the climate change can be more evidently attested. But there is no scholarly proof that the CO2 emissions are the principal reason for the devastating environmental collapse. In this regard, recent studies and reports made it clear that the reasons for which the colonial diplomacies support this fallacy are all due to new plans for another bubble in the world’s stock exchanges.

There is no doubt that the Western economies are at the brink of total disintegration and collapse. This is inevitable because of the paranoia that pushed the West’s economic elites to the formation a fake economic circle, namely the derivatives that have been launched in the 80s. For several centuries of capitalist economy, the stock exchanges used to reflect the real economy which evolved around production. The financial products launched in the 80s produced a bubble that exists antagonistically with the real economy, driving it to total dismantlement.

Following the economic contraction, the world’s economic elites put all their hopes for a new lucrative (for them) bubble on a trillion dollar carbon trading system that will use the ecological concerns and the misguided efforts for supposed environmental improvement in order to draw investors to carbon-related derivatives.

One can guess the disappointment of the world’s evil financial elites through many recent publications in the global mass media: http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/GAM.20091216.IBCREDITS16ART1924/GIStory/.

Carbon ? related derivatives: Ominous for all Africans

As a matter of fact, carbon-related derivatives is the main enemy of all the African nations. The fake financial products will be traded in Derivatives Exchanges allover the world to empower the world’s financers to further persecute the oppressed peoples allover the world and to effectively strengthen local dictators in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It will be the fresh cash that the gangsters of England, France and the pro-colonial, Freemasonic establishment of America simply do not have now!

The Copenhagen-related disappointment of the Canadian media is in this regard great: http://www.inews880.com/News/National/Article.aspx?id=169994. This constitutes a mere example. In fact, the need of the world’s financial elite for fresh cash (in trillions of fake money) is dramatic.

A few days ago, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky underscored the dangers ensuing from the institutionalization of such a trading system that will make the world’s poor poorer and the world’s rich richer. In his ‘Climate Change: What is the Hidden Agenda?’ (www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16514, December 12, 2009), he wrote:

“We bring to the attention of our readers, an archive of opinion, news, and analysis on the issue of Global Warming, which is currently being debated in Copenhagen under the auspices of the UN Framework Agreement on Climate Change.

The corporate media, in chorus, is calling upon public opinion to endorse the Global Warming consensus, which supports a multibillion dollar carbon trading system.

CO2 emissions are heralded in the editorial as the single and most important threat to the future of humanity.

The evidence that CO2 is the sole cause of Global Warming is questionable, as revealed by numerous scientific studies.

This archive on Climate Change published by Global Research brings together a vast body of critique, analysis and opinion regarding the Climate Change.

What is the hidden agenda behind the Copenhagen CO15 Summit?

The governments of NATO countries act on behalf of the interests of the financial establishment, the oil companies and the defense contractors. The Global Warming consensus is being used to justify a lucrative multibillion carbon trading scheme which seeks to enrich corporations and financial institutions to the detriment of the developing countries.

This carbon trading scheme does not serve the interests of social justice. Quite the opposite.

While we share the concerns of the environmentalists, there is no reason to uphold something which is untrue or questionable to reach stated environmental goals.

Reducing toxic manmade emissions, preserving biodiversity, protecting wildlife and preventing deforestation are objectives in their own right. The implementation of an environmental program geared explicitly towards reducing environmental contamination and pollution at the national and international levels requires neither the Global Warming Consensus, nor a profit driven carbon trading system”.

China

For China it is vital to put as many obstacles as possible to the new financial scheme. Carbon related derivatives will lead to a new wave of American consumerism, which will burden China with an even greater surplus in foreign currency. This does not necessarily mean that China will have the upper hand; on the contrary, the development would make China more dependent on the US. Full dependence of China on America is the Wall Street elite foremost dream.

Averting the trillion dollar carbon scheme is certainly not enough for China! Particularly in view of the ongoing travel of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration (http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=3797&lang=0) to Khartoum and Juba, the increasing US interest in the Horn of Africa, and the anticipated US ? EU use of the political trickery “Islamic Extremism” in the years ahead, China should greatly reassess and adequately readjust its approach to Africa before Beijing finds itself confronted with the US tactics of faits accomplis.

Beijing must come to terms with the African realities and with the fact that never Chinese influence and penetration will be permanent in a country that has been a colonial fabrication. Meles Zenawi’s willingness to offer his capital city as the location of the AFRICOM headquarters is in this case indicative; for a moment he flirted with China, but then the racist Amhara – Tigray establishment of Abyssinia (fallaciously re-baptized ‘Ethiopia’) turned to Washington again.

It is urgent therefore for China to turn to the real forces of Africa, the tyrannized African nations who struggle for national independence, political freedom and cultural integrity, and not Africa’s colonially enslaved elites. Supporting liberation fronts and helping various African peoples shape independent countries is the only way for Beijing to outmaneuver the catastrophic work carried out by the colonial powers on African soil.

Ogaden

Ogaden is a first example. A sizeable territory (280000 km2) where 6 millions of Somalis have been engulfed, imprisoned and persecuted in all possible manners because of the ominous English colonialism that ended up in ulcerous anti-Somali racism and vicious political practices. In fact, the entire territory of Ogaden became a gift offered to the bloodthirsty and barbaric Amhara Abyssinian despot, Haile Selassie, because of his siding with England in the East Africa colonial game.

With rich soil, great natural resources, and a well educated Ogadeni Diaspora, an independent Ogaden Republic will be China’s key economic and political partner, and more importantly, it will be a partner deprived of tergiversations and hesitations. The brave people of Ogaden, the active Ogadeni Diaspora, and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) are the key for China’s need for peace and national unity in Somalia.

China’s accurate understanding of the Asiatic landmass geopolitical games of England and America must help in shaping China’s new African policy. Afghanistan is a matter of concern for China’s national security. The US-led foreign armies in Afghanistan created a havoc after eight (8) years of inexplicably unending and truly speaking fake war against phantasms of extremism. What brought these armies there? This is known: September 11th. An event that more and more people allover the world refuse to take at face value and consider merely as a scheme of the US militaristic establishment.

Another September 11th may happen at any time. Those who expect it grow more numerous day by day. It can be possibly attributed to the Shabaab of Somalia who control the southern parts of Somalia, having got great help in terms of logistics from the US and their puppet, the tyrannical Kikuyu regime of Nairobi.

Another September 11th would be an excellent pretext for the US forces to occupy on permanent basis part of the geo-strategically very important territory of Somalia. Such a development would not only herald the beginning of the end of China’s penetration in Africa. It would also herald doubts about the possibility of China to effectively defend its national territory from nuclear attacks.

I will expand on this subject in several forthcoming articles but here I merely add two reports on recent demonstrations organized by the Ogadeni Diaspora in Copenhagen.

Members of the Danish Ogaden Community Demonstrate Outside the UN Climate Change Conference

Copenhagen, Denmark ? December 17. Protestors from Denmark’s Ogaden Community demonstrate outside the UN climate change conference on December 17, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group were demonstrating against Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi participating in the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference, claiming that he has one of the worst environmental records in the history of Ethiopia and that he has no respect for fundamental human rights.

Members of the European Ogaden Community Demonstrate Against Meles Zenawi

Dozens of Ogaden and Oromo communities in Europe demonstrated outside the UN climate change conference on December 17-18, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group were demonstrating against Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi participating in the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Meles Zenawi is one of the worst environmental records in the history of Ethiopia and that he has no respect for fundamental human rights.

Waving the Ogaden National flag, the protestors chanted Meles belongs at the Hague for trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) instead of being honored as a spokesman for all African nations at the global conference this week. Members of the Ogaden community accused Meles Zenawi of committing genocide in the Ogaden.

Many African countries seek financial compensation for the continent in order to combat climate change. Recently, some African groups opposed a deal between Meles and European leaders.

The Ogaden people are fighting for self-determination. Extra-judicial killings, rape, disappearances, destruction of livelihood and the displacement of thousands of Ogaden people are the daily norm in Ogaden.

There is constant fighting between Ethiopian troops and ONLF forces in the Ogaden region. Human rights organizations accuse the Ethiopian soldiers of violating the human rights by harassing the people in the Ogaden region.

Note 1
Picture: Demonstrations of the Ogaden Diaspora
From: http://www.ogaden.com

Note 2
An audiovisual version of this article can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5vDkuZIvBs

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America did an excellent job in Afghanistan; however, after seven (7) years of battles, diplomacy and investment, Afghanistan is about to be lost, having gradually been taken back and controlled by the opponents of the US-led alliance.

America did also an excellent job in Iraq, but after five and half (51 1/2) years of battles, diplomacy and investment, Iraq is in total chaos, at the epicenter of a maelstrom that risks absorbing the entire Middle East.

Speaking twice on Somalia a week ago, notably in the UN Security Council meeting and afterwards, Secretary Rice revealed that the US and several other countries have developed a common understanding with respect to piracy off the Somali coast, and that with the coverage of the recent UN Security Council Resolution 1851, they will undertake a great effort to eradicate piracy from the Somali coastland.

With references to AMNISOM, preventive policies, and international efforts, Condoleezza Rice demonstrated that the US plans of combating piracy are merely superficial. The perplexity of the Somali society and politics seem not to have been taken into consideration by the useless administrators of the collapsing superpower.

In fact, combating piracy in Somalia signifies either a mere theatrical act if operations are limited offshore or ? in case if ashore operations ? a damage against mainly the Puntland warlords and their financers, which would be a severe hit against the TFG president Abdillahi Yusuf and his local puppets at Garowe.

If a strong hit is delivered against the Somali piracy, the anti-ARS ? Shebab part of the Somali politics will be weakened; this would end up with an increased role for those whom the US establishment considers as unacceptable as ‘terrorists’.

This alone makes clear the US targets during the impending attack; as a matter of fact, the piracy phenomenon will not be uprooted; the reason is simple. Piracy is not a local phenomenon in Somalia, and it has never grown there. All the events we have been attesting over the past years clearly demonstrate that through bribery, deception and corruption, piracy has been implanted by evil, colonial England in Somalia ? certainly not directly but through several levels of proxies.

The pseudo-phenomenon was badly needed by the evil groups of power that machinate Somalia’s destruction; it has been geared to serve as mere pretext for the US attack against the liberation forces of Somalia, namely ARS and the Shabab. Through this anti-Somali conspiracy the colonial powers intend to impose on Somalia a neo-colonial regime with continuous US presence ? as it currently happens in Afghanistan.

I republish herewith Condoleezza Rice’s speech at the UN Security Council, and her remarks following the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Somalia. Both speeches bear witness to the superficial approach and inadequate understanding of all things African that characterize the State Department. Usually, when the distance from the down-to-earth reality becomes astronomical, the final failure is guaranteed.

But does it truly matter for a mourning Somali mother at Hobyo, bereft of children, husband, parents, food and property, whether America will finally fail after a paranoid attack against Somalia undertaken under the pretext of the theatrical Somali piracy?

Combating the Scourge of Piracy

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
New York, New York
December 16, 2008

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Secretary General. And thank you very much to all my colleagues for participating in this very important Security Council session on piracy.

Obviously, we are here because the outbreak of piracy and the increasing threat to commerce, to security, and perhaps most importantly, to the principle of freedom of navigation of the seas is one that should concern every nation-state. And I do believe that the resolution that we have passed today will help us go a long way toward a coordinated response to the scourge of piracy.

We have noted that several factors have been limiting the effectiveness of our response, although a number of countries have been responding. The United States has been a part of that response, as has the EU, NATO, and a number of other countries in this chamber. But because there has been no existing mechanism for states to coordinate their actions effectively, I believe that our response has been less than the sum of its parts.

I would like to announce that the United States intends to work with partners to create a Contact Group on Somali piracy. We envision the Contact Group serving as a mechanism to share intelligence, coordinate activities, and reach out to other partners, including those in shipping and insurance industries. And we look forward to working quickly on this initiative.

A second factor limiting our response is in the impunity that the pirates enjoy. Piracy currently pays. But worse, pirates pay few costs for their criminality. Their dens in Somalia provide refuge from the naval ships in the Gulf of Aden, and as we saw with the hijacking of the Sirius Star 500 nautical miles from Mombassa, and with the recent unsuccessful attacks even further south off the Tanzanian coast, pirates are adapting to the naval presence in the Gulf of Aden by traveling farther to attack unsuspecting ships.

To make piracy costlier and more difficult to undertake, the United States, with the agreement of the Somali Transitional Federal Government, believes that the Security Council’s authorization today that states may pursue pirates into their places of operation on land will have a significant impact. History has demonstrated again and again that maritime operations alone are insufficient to combating piracy.

Mr. President, we also have a problem concerning the steps that must be taken to facilitate the delivery, detention, and prosecution of captured pirates. Through international law reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Security Council Resolutions 1846 and 1816, and the 1988 Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, SUA, the international community already has sufficient legal authority and available mechanisms to apprehend and prosecute pirates, but sometimes the political will and the coordination has not been there to do so. This problem of capacity is especially pronounced in the regional states. Their proximity to piracy makes them an obvious choice to cite prosecutions, but many lack the necessary judicial and law enforcement capacities to do so.

So we call on all states, particularly those victimized by Somali piracy, to contribute generously to building the legal capacity of regional SUA states. In the resolution, we also ask the United Nations to explore what can be done to build legal capacity in those states.

At the same time as we expect regional states to play a critical role, victim states also need to bear equal responsibility for prosecuting pirates. States who flagged hijacked vessels, whose nationals own hijacked vessels, or who have crew members on hijacked vessels, must honor their SUA obligations in relation to receiving and prosecuting suspected pirates.

Fourth, we must ask the maritime industry to promote capabilities to enhance ship self-defense. Once a hostage situation develops, the stakes in military operations increase. Consequently, an important part of counter-piracy efforts must be measured in enhancing self-defense capabilities of commercial vessels, increasing the odds of success against pirates until warships arrive.

Finally ? and a number of colleagues have spoken to this ? we must address the root of the piracy problem. Piracy is a symptom. It’s a symptom of the instability, the poverty, the lawlessness that have plagued Somalia for the past two decades. The Djibouti peace process has achieved some political headway in the last few months. And I thank you, Secretary General, for your excellent special representative, Ambassador Ould-Abdallah. But the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation on the ground is threatening that progress and threatening it every day.

The international community must make it a priority to work with the TFG, both to stabilize its internal situation and to work with the alliance for the rehabilitation ? re-liberation of Somalia, and the African Union mission in Somalia to help stabilize the country’s security situation. In this regard, let me note that the United States does believe that the time has come for the United Nations to consider and authorize a peacekeeping operation. This has been requested by the AU. It has been requested by countries that are taking the brunt of the difficulty on the ground. And while the conditions may not be auspicious for peacekeeping, they will be less auspicious if chaos reigns in Somalia and we have to turn at some point to peacemaking. Prevention is the issue here.

And while the United States will do everything that it can to continue the support of AMISOM ? indeed, the United States provided $67 million for training and equipping and deploying AMISOM last year ? we will continue to do that, and we will buttress our support to AMISOM. But I am afraid that the history of support for forces of this kind is not a very good one. What happens is that we are not able to sustain the voluntary contributions, we’re not able to sustain the voluntary training, we’re not able to sustain the mechanisms to make certain that the work is flowing smoothly. That is why we have a peacekeeping operation in the UN, because it draws on the full resources of the member-states in a way that is not voluntary, but that is compulsory, to do the work of this Council.

And so, Mr. Secretary General, the United States will be, with other states, continuing to raise in consultations ? not yet for consideration by the Council ? but in consultations, the need for a peacekeeping force in accordance with the request of the African Union that we do so.

Let me just say finally that once peace and normalcy have returned to Somalia, we believe that Somalis can start down a path to real economic development. Offering the Somali people an alternative to piracy and criminality is, in the long run, the best sustainable strategy for combating piracy. As a part of this strategy, the United States believes in working with the international community to help Somali fishermen prosper by preventing illegal fishing and dumping in Somalia ? Somali territorial waters.

With our meeting today and the resolution, we have sent a strong signal of commitment to combat the scourge of piracy. This current response is a good start, but we must do much more to defend freedom of navigation and trade. The shipping industry will be an important partner in those efforts. But let us make no mistake: It is governments that must lead, and we need to coordinate our efforts through a common point of contact. We need to end the impunity of Somali pirates. We need to support regional states in building capacity to prosecute pirates effectively. And we need to work to build security and stability in Somalia so that the Somali people can finally enjoy the blessings of peace and the rule of law and development.

Thank you very much.

2008/1062
Released on December 16, 2008

Situation in Somalia

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Remarks Following the UN Security Council Meeting on the Situation in Somalia
New York City, New York
December 16, 2008

SECRETARY RICE: I’ve just attended a very successful Security Council session on piracy. The Security Council adopted Resolution 1851, which is a very strong resolution that deals with issues of detention of pirates, with the prosecution of pirates, with the ability to use all necessary means on land as well as at sea, because we know from history that it isn’t really possible to contain this problem just as a maritime issue.

We talked a good deal about the need for coordination on intelligence, on information sharing. The United States is going to lead a Contact Group on Piracy on the Somali Coast. We also talked about the need for commercial shipping to take means that are defensive means, some of which are readily available, so that the pirates cannot turn a situation into a hostage situation, because once a hostage situation comes into being, obviously the stakes go up.

So it was a very fulsome discussion. But ultimately, all members spoke to the need to deal with the root cause of the problem, which is the instability in Somalia. There is great support, as the United States supports the Djibouti process and the hopes for peace as Somali factions begin to try and chart a course ahead.

I also want to note that we are calling on the members of the Transitional Government to deal with their own internal matters. There needs to be a stable government there, and they need to deal with their own differences, because the Somali people deserve that.

Finally, we talked about the security situation. We very much respect and support AMISOM, the AU force, for what they are doing. And the United States has been a big supporter. We’ve trained ? helped with training and logistics and financial support. But we believe that a proper UN peacekeeping force, as is called for by the African Union, is a necessity here. While AMISOM is doing very good work and we will continue to support it, we have a history with voluntary contributions and voluntary training that, with a situation as urgent as the one in Somalia, we actually have an apparatus within the United Nations that can deal with that kind of situation.

And so the United States believes strongly that we ought to have a Security Council resolution as soon as possible. In fact, we believe that by the end of the year we should try and have such a Security Council resolution. And so we’ll take that matter up separately. It was not something that we took up today. We are still in consultations.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: Over the last 24 hours, there’s been another two hijackings off the coast of Somalia. I’d like to get your reaction to that. And also, do you see the eventuality of U.S. troops going ashore in Somalia to catch the pirates?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don’t want to take a kind of speculative look at this. I think it’s better not to comment in theory. We ? the United States is a part of an international effort. We do have naval forces that have been involved in this effort. What this does, though, is to authorize that the sea ? the boundary of the maritime cannot become a safe haven boundary for pirates. And so what we do or do not do in issues like hot pursuit or so forth, I think we’ll have to see and you’ll have to take it case by case. So I don’t want to commit in a speculative way or in a hypothetical way to anything for the United States. But again, the authorization was a very important authorization.

As to the two incidents that have taken place, I think it just shows the increasing problem that this is. The pirates are a threat to commerce. They are a threat to security. And perhaps most importantly, they are a threat to the principle of freedom of navigation on the seas.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: On the Six-Party Talks, the last round of meetings last week ended with no new declaration from North Korea. How do you leave this to your successors, and how do you respond to those who say that this has been a failure?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we leave in place ? first of all, we are going to continue to work on it until the very last day. But we leave in place a Six-Party framework in which at least five parties are completely agreed as to what the verification mechanism has to look like. I might just note that we have an agreement with the North Koreans about a verification protocol, but there were a number of issues that had to be clarified in order to make sure that that verification protocol was going to be workable. And those assurances were given to us by the North Koreans. We, in fact, reported those assurances to the Chinese chair before this Six-Party round took place. And what happened in Beijing was that the North Koreans at the ? at this last session wouldn’t write them down. And at some point, those assurances are going to have to be written down. But there is, in fact, a verification protocol and a set of assurances that the five are agreed to and that the North Koreans, at least privately, before we lifted the terrorist designation, had also agreed to. And so we’ll just have to work through this.

I might note, too, that the disabling ? first, the shutdown of the reactor and then the disabling of the reactor has been an important step forward in dealing with the plutonium program. But we have a lot of questions about the highly enriched uranium route for North Korea. We have a lot of questions about proliferation. And we believe that the mechanism of the Six Parties and an associated verification protocol will be the best way to resolve those questions and to get to the bottom of the entire nature of the North Korean program.

And I just might note, too, that the September 19th agreement of a couple of years ago lays out a path for the completely denuclearization of North Korea and of the Korean Peninsula, and that agreement is an agreement among the Six Parties. So I think we leave a pretty good framework, but we’ll continue to see if we can get the North Koreans to write down the assurances that they gave us.

QUESTION: Secretary Rice?

SECRETARY RICE: Let me take this gentleman right here.

QUESTION: Two things, Madame Secretary. First of all, military ? a U.S. military commander in the area has expressed reservations about going ashore, so I’m wondering if that means that the resolution lacks teeth and if there is a disagreement between the State Department and the Pentagon on the use of force.

SECRETARY RICE: I wouldn’t be ? I would not be here seeking authorization to go ashore if the United States Government, perhaps most importantly the President of the United States, were not behind this resolution. And therefore, any voices about this are voices that need to be understood in the context that I was sent here to get authorization to go ashore so that we did not create a dividing line that was a maritime-to-land sanctuary for the pirates. And that is a position that is supported by the United States Government as a whole.

This gentleman has ?

QUESTION: The Secretary General said that he approached 50 countries, through organizations, I believe, asking for troops and he couldn’t get them. So I know that you were a little bit critical in saying that there should be some mechanism put in place to sort of force that issue. But if you can’t get the countries to contribute troops, how do you ?

SECRETARY RICE: The issue here is that, first of all, there is a force on the ground, the AMISOM force; and one of the possibilities is to blue-hat the ? to rehab the AMISOM force and to add forces to it, and there are a number of countries that have expressed their willingness to consider being a part of such a force. I don’t think that one is going to raise a large multinational force of countries from all over the world for Somalia, but the African countries have expressed a lot of interest in doing what they can in Somalia and they’ve also expressed their ? through the AU the need for a UN peacekeeping force. And the Africans ? the African representatives here, including South Africa, spoke in favor of a peacekeeping force.

QUESTION: Secretary Rice, would the U.S. commit troops to a UN peacekeeping force, and do you know if Barack Obama supports your push for a UN peacekeeping force?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the President of the United States is the President of the United States, and we are seeking this and we believe that this is the best answer. I do know that no American administration is going to want to see chaos in Somalia. We’ve been there, we’ve done that; it didn’t look very good.

And finally, the Somalis actually have a legitimate process underway that needs to be supported. Now, I want to emphasize again, we did not seek a peacekeeping force today. The purpose of today was to deal with the piracy issue, and we’re going to continue consultations. But we cannot get into a situation in which a security vacuum is left in Somalia and all of the good work of Djibouti is undone and we go back to two years ago, prior to the Ethiopian offensive. That would not be a good circumstance to find ourselves in.

And I really don’t imagine American forces being a part of a peacekeeping operation. American forces are pretty busy these days.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, I wonder if we could get you to look more philosophically at diplomacy at the end of 2008 going into 2009 after your eight years in the government, and to see in a new world that is not unipolar, not multipolar, what we can ? what lessons we can draw out of especially today’s discussion about Somalia and a piracy issue, kind of in the spirit of your friend Alexander Downer, who liked to say that the Owl of Minerva takes flight at dusk. At the dusk, what do you reflect on?

SECRETARY RICE: (Laughter.) Well, let’s see. Is it dusk yet? Midnight. In any case, I think that the United States, under President Bush, has actually used the mechanisms and the councils of the United Nations more than they’ve been used maybe ever, whether it is insisting that Security Council resolutions that have been passed be respected, whether it is seeking to deal with human rights and tyranny cases like Zimbabwe or Burma, whether it is the kind of really remarkable day that we’ve had today where we’ve had one resolution that was sponsored by the United States and Russia on the Middle East, something that I think might not have been foreseeable just a very short period of time. And I think, by the way, that is a product of the last several years of diplomacy on the Middle East that really have brought the international community to a joint understanding and strategy of what needs to be done to achieve the two-state solution that Bush outlined. That’s why Russia and the United States were able to sponsor this.

And then finally, this piracy case, it’s a kind of interesting story because we were down at the APEC, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Council, and the President and I talked to half a dozen leaders down there, including President Hu Jintao, President Medvedev, and others, and we got such strong and resounding agreement that somehow, even though the international community had already gotten very strong authorities on piracy, we didn’t seem to be coordinated; people didn’t seem to know, we weren’t sending a deterrent message to the pirates through our unity. And this has been a remarkable process of getting a very strong, unanimous resolution on a common threat. And so I’m very proud of the multilateral diplomacy that we’ve been able to do and that the President has been able to support. It’s been a good couple days at the UN.

Yes.

QUESTION: Following up on your answer, you said the U.S. has been sure that UN sanctions, et cetera, are followed. Is Pakistan following the UN Security Council’s ban on the Jamaat? The Foreign Minister just said this weekend that charitable organizations of the Jamaat-ul-Dawa will not be closed down. Is this a violation of international cooperation?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the ? Pakistan is going to have to untangle a difficult circumstance with the Jamaat-ul-Dawa ? they are ? because I understand that there are so-called charitable activities. But we learned ? the United States learned the hard way that sometimes these are too intertwined with organizations that have terrorist ties and that have just been designated here. And so we will be pressing all member-states to adhere completely and to the letter of the designations that the United Nations has taken. And because I know the Pakistani Government to be a government that wants to deal in good faith with the world ? it’s a new civilian government that is a legitimate government that wants very much to be respected in international politics and, by the way, wants to deal with the terrorism problem that is itself having dire consequences in Pakistan ? I expect that there will be great ? will be cooperation.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: We’re continuing to pursue it ? the 123 agreement. We’re continuing to pursue it.

Yes.

QUESTION: On Somalia ?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: Does the U.S. favor imposing sanctions on Eritrea for its role in the internal conflict? And with the president now firing the prime minister, who is actually authorized in Somalia to authorize this?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, look, first of all, we believe that the prime minister of Somalia can only be relieved by the parliament, and therefore we recognize him. And we’ve made that clear to the president of Somalia.

Secondly, they need to work together. They have too many problems to be involved in these kinds of spats. I mean, the people of Somalia deserve better than this. And I just sat in a session in which the international community pledged all kinds of support to Somalia, all kinds of help to Somalia. Whether we agree or disagree among ourselves about exactly what kind of force can bring security, everybody in there wants to see security for Somalia, wants to see the Djibouti process work. The least that the leaders of Somalia can do is be equally committed to that cause, and we’re sending that message very strongly.

As to Eritrea, we will examine it. We do believe that there are difficulties being caused by the policies of Eritrea, and we’ll look at what actions we should take.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) does this resolution mean that ?

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

QUESTION: — you can intervene militarily in Somalia?

SECRETARY RICE: We ? there is a very ? there is a very clear, longstanding understanding in international politics about the role of UN Security Council resolutions in this regard, and the fact that it is the Transitional Federal Government that is desirous of not having their territory used for safe haven for pirates. And so that is what has just taken place here in the Council.

Thank you very much.

2008/1063

Released on December 16, 2008
Video is available here: http://www.state.gov/video/?videoid=5071960001

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