Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi dies after illness

[Tillamook]

Raamsade;859187 wrote:

Gaalka dil gartiisana sii. Whatever your views on the man there is no denying that he was one helluva shrewd operator. Meles presided over 20 years of politically stable Ethiopia the last 10 years witnessing a remarkable economic growth. For that he deserves plaudits. Yes, he was cruel autocrat who spared no mercy in repressing desent to stay in power and get his way. But lets not delude ourselves that the demise of Meles will usher in an era of peace and prosperity for Somalis. Somalia's problems transcend Meles.

 

I agree.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Somalis always find a way to credit murderers

[Somalia]

Xaaji Xunjuf;859214 wrote:

You are not making sense in 2007 the ethiopians attacked many villages but they coudent hold it cadaado they were pushed out by the muqawamo the same with gelinsoor though the ethiopians and tfg recapture it. And than were pushed out of it again in the end.

 

 

As for xamar the tfg and ethiopians were not given one chance abdilahi yusuf at the end was alone and his ethiopians friends were defeated.

 

 

Now compare it to sh sharif

He controls hiiraan all of banadir parts of shabeelada hoose majority of gedo

Galguduud and ximan iyo xeeb and puntland and galmudug are allied to him

He also controls the majority of bay region and parts of the lower juba.

Now how much did yey control when he was forced to resign

Sh sharif will be remembered for the first time in history xamar is under one admin

New constitution new parliament he did well where cabdilahi yusuf failed admit it boy

Stop lying, all Hiiraan is controlled by Ethiopians, Gedo = Ethiopians, Shabeelada = AMISOM, Mogadishu = AMISOM, 17000.

 

Again during 2007, all of South Somalia was under 1 administration, before new Prime Minister and end of Geedi era, all of it. All of what you stated is controlled by Ethiopians, Kenyans or AMISOM.

 

We began losing land after Nuur Adde started firing everyone, do not try and change history, yes he failed, but he was not given what Sheikh Shariif was given, 100s of millions, 17000 troops which he asked for in 2004. Don't try and change the history, that's qa ldaan mentality, so obviously I am not surprised.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Somali_land_2007_01_12.png

[LANDER]

Anyone without a lollipop in there mouth in 2006-2007 understood the situation as it was. It took the real power brokers another couple years to admit they had made a strategic mistake. The ICU were a homegrown solution to Somalia's problems of warlodism, anarchy and tribalism. In less than a year they managed to pacify most of Southern Somalia and there were foreign journalists at the time that reported back on the ground from Mogadishu bewildered by the sudden change in the security situation. Even up to present day no single group has managed to pacify as much territory as the ICU did in that very brief time. To compare the ICU to Alshabab is mixing oil and water, the american backed ethiopian invasion led to the rise of the uncontrolable extremists knowns as Al-shabab that is beyond a doubt. The americans and Ethiopians assumed that a cowardly puppet like Abdulahi Yusuf once the Ethiopian troops had cleaned house for him would be pragmatic enough to exhibit some inhibition to his warlodism and perhaps be more of a unifying figure. But 2 years later Diplomats from the state department were being quote as saying Abdulahi Yusuf was 'More of the problem than part of the solution' having realized the mistake they made, they corrected that by getting rid of Yusuf and bringing in Sheikh Sharif the former leader of the very ICU they ousted. Anyone who's interested in digging into american foreign policy sources being quoted can search them talking about how they should have dealt with the ICU instead of getting rid of them back than. In the grand scheme of things everybody has a role, national cost and benefits at stake for most stake holders. The Americans have their goals and are looking after their interest and so were the Ethio's. The ICU though in the end game made crucial strategic blunders and failed to see the forest for the trees, either that or were foolishly brave, but at the very least they get a passing grade on national intentions having done what no other movements could do before that is getting rid of the bloody warlords who were sucking the population dry and holding the country hostage. That was no easy task, putting the individual leaders of the movement in harms way and costing them many lives for what they understood to be the greater good. But when you look at the likes of Abdulahi Yusuf (AUN) and his poster militia that was suppose to be the 'somali' face of the invasion in the realm of propaganda. What other motive could they have for tagging along with the invasion aside from previously stated desires for tribal supremacy? It isn't a shock that he remained true to character and a cowardly disgraced to the very end having run away to yemen, it is rather stupefying that people who display all this nationalistic fervour would somehow still defend such actions in the name of some distant kinship.

[Somalia]

You still have not shown us hypocrisy on the part of Abdullahi Yusuf cause you simply will not find it. And you then fail to point out how Sheikh Shariif turned against his cause, a simple thing for you to point out where the hypocrisy is. Ironically you are the qabilist here, why do you defend some while try and lam-bast others?

 

Let me correct you again. They said he was the problem because he didn't want to negotiate with ARS, Sheikh Shariif and Sharif Hassan's group in Asmara as they were not the real opposition but a side show. When they got into power and Abdullahi Yusuf resigned the international community realised they were duped and that the real opposition was still fighting. The whole reason why Sheikh Shariif was elected by because he was suppose to convince his erstwhile colleagues of joining him.

 

Maybe your beef is with the fact that Somaliland's recognition claims were thwarted by this man several times since 1991 and latest during his last moments in office cause you can't somehow defend ICU and then be against Al Shabaab, it simply does not hold water. LOL@ICU being homegrown.

[Abwaan]

Habartaan keliya iyo dadkeeda ayaan moodey in oohintu ku egtahay

 

http://www.ethiotube.net/video/21531/Very-emotional-cry-by-First-Lady-Azeb-Mesfin--family-members-as-body-of-PM-Meles-Zenawi-arrives-at-National-Palace" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

 

Ee bal awoowgood....maxaan iraahdaa...day dhahaya aabihii ma dhiman.

 

 

[Faafan]

^ Maxaad la dhoolacadayn meeshan Jigjiga la dhahaa ama soo bax weeye ama adaa is toogtay...Shacabkan waa shacab bah-dilan oo xabsi ku jira...xaafad walba waa diwaan gashan tahay nin walbana gadaashiisuu eegaya....waa dad uu Ilay soo ururiyay, caruurta xitaa schooladaa laga soo kaxaystay...kaliya kuwa daacada ka tahay waa axmaarada dhex socota...inta kale farxad qarsoon.

 

Even the homeless people of Addis ababa have not escaped this bizarre North Korean style crying ritual.

 

Horta Universal iyo Tv'ga Itoopiya maxay ku kala duwan yihiin, waaba isku wariye nacalad baa idin ku taala.

[Abwaan]

Ma saas baa Faafan, marka rejo ayaad igu abuurtay haddiiba aad leedahay dadkaan lafahooda ayey u baqayaan, waxaan u qaatay in heerkaan ay dadkii gaareen ay ninkaan sidaan u tebaan.

[Faafan]

When you control all aspects of life and instill fear then you can make people carry out what you want in whatever fashion.

 

This is Addis ababa residents still in fear of speaking about Meles even in death what do we expect from little Jigjiga.

 

Ethiopians talk about their deceased leader nervously

 

BY ALAN BOSWELL

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- On the day Ethiopians learned that their leader, Meles Zenawi, had died, life went on for the regulars at a nondescript compound on the outskirts of this city. The first client showed up about 3 p.m. and sat down under the porch awning. In minutes, a waitress had placed a raindrop-shaped beaker in front him and filled it with a dark yellow liquid from a Johnnie Walker bottle - tej, the traditional homebrew honey wine.

 

A group of three friends soon entered, ordering a bottle of tej for themselves. Then, they opened up about their dead prime minister, sort of.

 

"It would have been better if people had been told he had cancer or whatever," said the most vocal of the group. "You can suppress the truth for only so long."

 

His friend on his left chimed in. "As a leader for foreign affairs, he was perfect," he said, but for Ethiopians, "he was not that good." He looked down at his beige flat cap that rested on his left knee. "Things will get worse, believe it or not. I fear we will have a civil war."

 

The third friend, asked what he thought, simply shook his head: "My friend, I don't want to give you any comment about it."

 

Asked their names, the first complied but asked that it not be printed. The other two simply declined to reveal their identities. "We are well-known here," one said.

 

The fear that grips Ethiopian society - and, some say, keeps the country's ruling party in power - was painfully obvious in the wake of Meles' death late Monday in Brussels. People out on the street did not feel comfortable talking, hence the visit to the inconspicuous bar. Most of those who did speak refused to give their names.

 

Of the many people approached over several hours, only eight agreed to be interviewed. Of those only one gave both a given name and a surname. Some gave their first name, most gave no name at all.

 

The brave soul who acquiesced to being identified with two names then joked nervously: "But I won't tell you my third name." (In Ethiopia, the second name is your father's, the third name, your grandfather's, making each name an additional tool for identification.)

 

Although Ethiopia's economy boomed under Meles, and its international reputation as a regional powerbroker soared, at home his government was best known for a level of Orwellian oversight best described as paranoid. A powerful intelligence service suppressed domestic dissent, and dissenters were often imprisoned, or simply disappeared.

 

That repression was given a legal boost when Ethiopia adopted terrorism laws - a popular new weapon in the armory of dictatorial regimes over the past decade. The Ethiopian law carries an obscure provision that allows prosecution for providing "moral support" to loosely defined terrorism. According to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, 11 journalists have been convicted under that provision since December. One Ethiopian journalist was sentenced in July to 18 years in prison under the law.

 

Citizens seem all too aware that speaking out can bring trouble. Even after several minutes of a note-taking interview, most seemed unprepared when asked for their names - as if one should know better than to ask.

 

One man who spoke candidly for about five minutes suddenly stood up and rushed out. Two others refused to speak inside a cafe that had fewer than a dozen customers. "Look, you think we can talk to you?" one asked. "Do you see how the others are looking at us?"

 

Another man asked to be identified only as Hassim then refused to speak except in the confines of a taxi speeding through the city. Meles, he said, "didn't do anything for his native country, except for the Tigray," referring to the former prime minister's ethnic group, which holds outsized power in the government. When the taxi pulled up to his workplace, Hassim ended the conversation, hopping out and disappearing inside.

 

Ironically, even as they whispered with shifting eyes, most Ethiopians did not have anything all that scathing to say. Most credited their late leader with the same traits that won him accolades abroad: his sharp intellect, eloquence and leadership skills.

 

While they expressed little sorrow over a lost leader they feared more than loved, there was also little jubilation over his death. For most, the day's mood seemed accurately expressed in the afternoon rainfall: a steady drizzle, but no downpour of grief.

 

But they knew better than to say that openly. At one point during the day, when another Ethiopian declined to speak, an interpreter apologetically explained: "They have good reason to fear, you know."

 

(Boswell is a McClatchy Newspapers special correspondent. His reporting is underwritten in part by a grant from Humanity United, a California-based a California-based foundation that focuses on human rights issues.)

 

Read more here:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/22/2963420/ethiopians-talk-about-their-deceased.html#storylink=cpy

[Alpha Blondy]

did anyone see meles's funeral (sounds a little odd writing meles and funeral in the same sentence) today? silaanyo was there. jacob zuma was between him and sheilk sharif.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

^^Why every one will die

[Alpha Blondy]

of course! XX

 

many thought he was immortal.

[BoldNewSomali]

Raamsade;859187 wrote:

Gaalka dil gartiisana sii. Whatever your views on the man there is no denying that he was one helluva shrewd operator. Meles presided over 20 years of politically stable Ethiopia the last 10 years witnessing a remarkable economic growth. For that he deserves plaudits. Yes, he was cruel autocrat who spared no mercy in repressing desent to stay in power and get his way. But lets not delude ourselves that the demise of Meles will usher in an era of peace and prosperity for Somalis. Somalia's problems transcend Meles.

Hitler did wonders for the post WWI German economy, should we praise him as well?

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Bold news Somali are there Somalis out there who have problems with Adolf Hitler

[BoldNewSomali]

Xaaji Xunjuf;864452 wrote:

Bold news Somali are there Somalis out there who have problems with Adolf Hitler

Yea, the whole racial supremacy thing is totally not cool with me, and I suspect with most other Somalis. Now if we're talking qabil supremacy, then Somalis are totally down for that