RECENTLY, a 54-minute video “Ethiopia, A Failed State Documentary” was released on YouTube. The documentary presents evidence and analysis few Ethiopians would dare discuss openly because of the sheer nightmarish nature of the issues raised.
The extraordinary documentary grabs by the tusk the biggest elephant in the room: The disintegration of Ethiopia from festering ethnic hatred, corruption and political repression of the TPLF.
The documentary aims to answer the question of what will happen when (not if, if present trends continue) Ethiopia is swallowed into the black hole of failed African states. The answer it provides is spine-chilling. Ethiopia will disintegrate and descend into an Armageddon of civil war and strife ultimately emerging as a “hub of terrorism” just like its neighbor Somalia.
The evidence presented and reviewed in the documentary are compelling and multifaceted. The documentary shows Ethiopia is doomed to be a classic African failed state because of the repression, corruption and bad governance of the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). The documentary presents compelling and shocking evidence on the “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” and other crimes against humanity committed against the “Amhara, Gambella and Oromo people” by the TPLF. It shows how billions of Western aid dollars have been laundered through the TPLF’s “Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray” (EFFORT), the biggest corporation in Ethiopia in terms of revenue and assets and deposited in offshore bank accounts in the names of children of TPLF politicians.
The documentary shows how the TPLF has used its “bogus terrorism act” to justify its imprisonment, harassment and jailing of opposition leaders, journalists, bloggers and dissidents. It shows how the TPLF has meddled in religion by politicizing the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and flagrantly violating canon law and other practices of that Church and persecuting clergy opposing political interference. It shows how the TPLF has sought to incite strife between Christians and Muslims and interfered in the religious affairs of Muslims in Ethiopia. It shows how the TPLF has sold the country’s best land to fly-by-night land-grabbers for pennies displacing hundreds of thousands of poor villagers with money obtained from the World Bank, the British Government and others.
Last week, the World Bank announced that it has failed to follow its own rules for protecting the poor people in Ethiopia swept aside by dams, roads and other big projects it bankrolls. The week before the British Government announced it “will no longer back $4.9bn project that critics claim has funded a brutal resettlement programme” in Ethiopia.
The documentary shows how the TPLF has subverted the legal system and made it a kangaroo (monkey) court system selling justice to the highest bidder and the most politically connected. It shows how TPLF persecution has resulted in the creation of large refugee populations and a source of cheap slave labor in the Middle East. It shows how the TPLF has managed to dominate the military and intelligence sectors by controlling 95 percent of top leadership positions.
The documentary issues a massive indictment of U.S. policy in Ethiopia and argues that if the U.S., as the principal bankroller of the TPLF regime, does not take action to reverse the situation forthwith, it will have the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on its hands. The documentary concludes:
Ethiopia is at a crossroad and the future of the country is ever looking bleak. We are heading to a fully-fledged failed state resembling that of Somalia, Syria and Iraq. This is because the tension and conflict within Ethiopia have reached a boiling point where a simple spark could instigate chaos. Conflict and tension revolving around ethnicity, religion and politics are very high. This is because the TPLF since its inception has made sure to destroy the very fabric of Ethiopian society which was based on religious and ethnic tolerance and understanding… This has eroded to the point where it is now non-existent. The present Ethiopia is rife with hate, rhetoric and ideology… The TPLF’s ethnocracy is reminiscent of Rwanda and Yugoslavia which ended in genocide and civil war…
Suffice it to say that if the time ever came for a prosecution of the TPLF leaders in an international or domestic tribunal, this powerful documentary will be the centerpiece of the prosecution’s opening argument.
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Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino. His teaching areas include American constitutional law, civil rights law, judicial process, American and California state governments, and African politics.
