Dr. Jendayi Frazer Fails to camouflage the Bankruptcy of US Foreign
Policy in the Horn of Africa!
The purpose of Dr. Frazer's trip to the Emerald City, Seattle, was to
give a speech on "The Future of Africa and US foreign Policy [towards
Africa]". On a pleasant evening on May 29th 2008, about 70 to 100
people, mostly from the Horn of Africa region, were sparsely seated in
one of the University of Washington's classroom halls.
Dr. Frazer was seen intensely reading some papers that may have been
some of the questions and comments people were allowed to email to her
through the University channels. At any rate, the meeting started about
5 minutes later than scheduled - presumably to give some chance to the
habitual late shows, a habit that is neither appropriate nor is
something to be proud of by advertising it as the "qotsera Habesha".
Dr. Frazer was introduced, I believe, by the dean of the African studies
of the University. The dean, as a moderator, took his sweet time in
helping himself by asking some irrelevant questions, which really could
have been used by the more than anxious audience who were dying to
challenge the guest of honor as it were!
In spite of the moderator's unprofessional warning that he was not going
to entertain questions or comments related to the Horn of Africa issues,
perhaps not surprisingly, the overwhelming questions and/or comments
were related to the volatile Horn of Africa region in general and
Eritrea in particular. Some of the subjects that were covered were:
1) "US/Eritrea" relationship in general and the Ethio/Eritrea
"Border" issue and US' biased and unprincipled stand against Eritrea in
particular
2) The illegal Ethiopian invasion/occupation of Somalia and US
support of it and the issue of "Islamic Court Union" and "Al Shabaab"
insurgents
3) The rigged Ethiopian election and its aftermath in which
hundreds of innocent children were mowed down by the Weyane regime
4) The plight of the "Oromo", "Ogadeni" and other oppressed
nationalities of Ethiopia were all addressed to a various degree of
intensity.
On the US-Eritrea current frosty relationship, she claimed that the
"Problem" started when the Eritreans felt they were sidelined by the
decision of the Bush Administration to select Ethiopia as one of the
four strategic states in Africa; and when the US asked Djibouti for the
use of its "Port facility" instead of taking any of the many other
African governments, including Eritrea, who had offered the US to use
their facility. Hmm, I guess she has to put some spin on the issue.
Nevertheless, she told the audience that the US was still trying to
develop a good working relationship with all the stake holders including
Eritrea -adding "Just last week, President Isaias refused to talk to me
and to Condoleezza Rice" to which the audience responded by a thunderous
applauds.
On the US threat to unfairly label Eritrea as a "Sponsor of terrorism",
she said the US security people were still reviewing the facts as they
were made available to them. However, she couldn't hide the obvious fact
when she said that historically, the Eritreans are against terrorism and
that they had fought against it. Their action of supporting various
groups appears to get back at Meles rather than some inherent belief in
terrorism. When asked how is it that the US is even contemplating to
label Eritrea as a terrorist sponsoring nation when, in fact some
terrorists have just concluded a gathering of some lost souls under the
auspices of the Weyane thugs with the blessing of the US Embassy in
Addis Ababa? She simply shrugged it off stating "I don't know anything
about it"!
On the Ethio/Eritrea border issue, Dr. Frazer repeated one more time the
absurd Weyane contention that while the US supports the Eritrea Ethiopia
Border Commission (EEBC) "Final and binding" decision, she was concerned
about how the separation of families and division of localities could be
handled. Interestingly she tried to tell her audience that there was a
move to break the ice on the border standstill between Eritrea and
Ethiopia by introducing yet another facilitator in the person of retired
army General Carlton Fulford the details of his mission she said she was
not sure adding she didn't understand why Eritrea rejected that offer
either. When asked why the US was reluctant to pressure Ethiopia to
abide by the rule of law, she spilled the beans, sort of though, when
she rhetorically asked "How can we convince Ethiopia to do anything when
we cannot even convince Eritrea?" Of course that message implies that
Eritrea was weaker than Ethiopia, a fancy the Bush Administration has
been entertaining as a license for Ethiopia to get away with not
respecting the EEBC decision, which has asserted its legal conclusion to
the so called border row between the two countries. Otherwise, while it
is true that the US may not have any leverage against Eritrea that ticks
by its own watch, the US and the West surely could have forced the
belligerent Weyanes to their knees by threatening the life support
amenities Ethiopia continually receives from them!
Knowing how loose cannon this least-informed lady at the State
Department could be, what was most surprising to many of us, however,
was that her callous and irresponsible statement about the "Eritrean
penetration" into Djiboutian territory. Talk about arrogance. It doesn't
get any better than this. Again, here is a plausible "reason" why the
Djiboutian leaders have been acting the way they did the last couple of
weeks after all the nice gestures and friendly hands Eritrea has
stretched to them! Africa, oh poor Africa! When are you going to have
some decent, caring and responsible leaders?
On the illegal Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, her spin was that many
Somalis were "Encouraging" the US to abandon the war lords that the US
had been clandestinely supporting; and support instead the
"Internationally" recognized government of Somalia, the so-called
"Transitional Federal Government" (TFG). When responding to a question
why the US doesn't work with the Alliance for the Re-liberation of
Somalia (ARS) instead with the much-hated TFG, she stated that the US
was working with some of ARS members in Djibouti adding she would
probably be placing some of its members that had been meeting with US
officers "In trouble". There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, from the
horse's mouth for the unusual and unwarranted accusation Sheik Sharif
Sheik Ahmed has been labeling against the hand that fed him (Eritrea)
over the weekend! She also stated that a cosmetic change of replacing
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi by Prime Minster Nor Hassan Hussein was meant as a conciliatory gesture on the part of the US to get the TFG and
ARS to talk!
On the killing of many innocent Ethiopian students in Addis Ababa, she
of course had to state the politically correct statement, albeit very
shallow and disingenuous, that she was not at her current position when
the 2005 massacre of Ethiopian students took place and that the US had
told Prime Minister Meles of its displeasure about the incident. She
also told the audience the usual US line that Meles released some
political prisoners on US insistence and that they were working with him
to release some more.
Finally, and sadly, she said absolutely nothing about the core problem
inside Ethiopia - the plight of the oppressed nationalities in Ethiopia
- except to state that she knows "Eritrea is arming" all those
opposition groups. LOL!
Long live the solidarity between the people of the Horn!
Berhane Alazar