Judge Richard Goldstone retracted several conclusions of his UN Investigative report that accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza due to some flaws in the report and the enormous pressure that followed from influential lobbying groups
By Kiflu Hussain,
Long before the Wikileaks cable came out to disclose further information to the gullible world including about the diabolical nature of the regime of Meles Zenawi, I maintained that the regime is capable of bombing its own people and blame it on phantom ‘terrorists’ for two purposes: To crackdown on legitimate opposition groups, critiques and dissidents; as well as by posturing as an ally on the “war on terror”, to sought and got favor from the west.
One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to arrive at this terrible conclusion. Nor was there any need for an elaborate scheme of espionage that led to “clandestine reporting” as Vicki Huddleston, an American diplomat in Ethiopia at the time, had it, according to Wikileaks. However, the regimes behavior of planting bombs and blaming its opponents was an open secret between Ethiopians.
Besides, this is one of the oldest dirty tricks that governments use to distract public attention from their misrule. Apart from Ferdinand Marcos, former President of Philippines, who bombed public facilities in order to blame it on the commies thereby declare state of emergency, Jesse Ventura in his book “American Conspiracies” provides us with compelling evidences and anecdotes that even the biggest “democracy” itself is not clean from this oldest sin. When not detected and unchallenged, it’s a sin that all powerful agencies succumb to.
Therefore, in spite of having no illusion on the sainthood of the Eritrean government, I cannot and will not take the UN Monitoring Report seriously whose sources among others are detained individuals in Ethiopia under a system known for routinely torturing inmates to extract self-incriminating statements.
Sadly though, since the Ethiopian regime is currently engaged in a new wave of unprecedented crackdown on opposition figures, critiques and journalists alike on a bogus charge of ‘terrorism’, it is expected that the bogus UN report will be cited as “the most credible proof” of their crime before the Kangaroo court.
On top of the double standard that UN often dabbles into, this shows that in the process of being a tool to the big powers to tighten a noose on an undesirable governments that there is no compunction to also sacrifice a few innocent souls to the altar.
Meanwhile, if Isaias Afwerki had a powerful lobbying group or a card he could have played against the western’s interest, this report would have been nipped in the bud like the draft report on Rwanda and Uganda that accused them of committing war crimes in DR Congo.
Instead of Afwerki flying out to neighboring countries in the region to marshal support, he could have forced figures like UN chief Ban-ki Moon run to Asmara as he was forced by Kagame to Kigali. Or he could have made the star author of the ‘monitoring report’ distance himself from his infamous report like Goldstone who backtracked from the UN Fact-Finding Mission report on the Gaza Conflict.
In a nutshell, I agree with some modification with Thomas C. Mountain’s recent assertion that it is the ‘regime in Ethiopia’ (not Ethiopia) that bombs its own people.
See “Wikileaks Ethiopia files: Ethiopia Bombs itself, Blames Eritrea, Oromos” on countercurrents.org, September 16, 2011.
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Kiflu Hussain is An Ethiopian Human Rights Defender exiled in Uganda.
.:TesfaNews:. 
After waves of demonstrations and protests rooted out dictators in North Africa, PM Meles Zenawi’s ethnic regime reduced itself into a small group of outlaws that use the legal system as a coer to round up dissenters and ship them to prison camps.
In its futile attempt to prevent the inevitable, PM Zenawi’s dictatorial regime has literally stopped functioning as a state and has devoted the bulk of its time to eves dropping harassing, arresting, and killing otherwise law abiding citizens in the name of ‘terrorism’.
The purpose of the politically motivated arrests and false accusations of the last few months is clear and simple; it is to instill fear in the mind of change seeking Ethiopians. In fact, fear has always been the driving force behind everything the TPLF regime does.
However, regardless of what the regime does at this point of time;the days of ethnic supremacy and domination in Ethiopia are numbered, and the people of Ethiopia have determined to make 2004 the last year of dictatorship in Ethiopia. At this historical juncture and decisive moment, now it is about time for all democratic forces to stand together and bring and end to Zenawi’s ethnic dictatorship.