Habtamu Ayalew: Pitching for Asylum in America?

By Berhane Kahsay
Tigrai Online, May 9, 2017

Habtamu Ayalew has made a phenomenal recover from his ‘terminal’ illness, and already he is preparing the ground for his asylum application in the United States. The spokesperson of Andent was allowed to leave Ethiopia for treatment abroad, and ever since his arrival in America, he has been making wild allegations of torture because of his ethnicity; and to extract confession linking him to the outlawed terror group, G7. Extremist media outlets including VOA Amharic (ESAT 2) have been used to disseminate serious accusations without offering a shred of hard evidence to substantiate them.

In the presence of an overwhelming audio, video and other incriminating evidences, why would it be necessary to coerce him to admit his membership of a proscribed organisation which came to life to execute Eritrean and Egyptian strategies of deflecting Ethiopia from its meteoric economic realisations?

Habtamu even went further and unashamedly asserted in various meetings and interviews that he was tortured because of his Amahra identity. And many people believe that the reason for this outlandish claim was to ensure the continuation of  the fanatic’s financial backing, and to bolster his imminent application for refugee status in the US there by establish a comfy life for himself and his family.

Some of Habtamu’s partners in crime have been given long sentences for incessantly violating Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law but no citation of torture came to light from these internees. Eskinder Nega is among these prisoners, and on 24 July, 2013, his piece titled ‘’ Letter from Ethiopia’s Gulag’’ appeared on The New York Times but never once mentioned that he was a victim of torture. On 20 April, 2016, another convict, Andualem Aragie who is serving a life sentence on terrorism charges, dispatched an open letter to President Obama and again there was no indication of torture.

On July 10, 2015, there was a piece on International Women’s Media Foundation( IWMF) announcing the release of Reeyot Alemu and the author  reported that the ‘’journalist’’ was denied visitation rights but made no reference to torture of any kind. Similarly, no citation of torture by CPJ and Human Rights Watch on Zone 9 Bloggers and Temesgahen Desalegn who is still in prison on charges of defamation and incitement.

Habtamu is an ethno-centrist purveyor of falsehood and shows scant respect for other Ethiopians. In a protest rally that was held in Addis Ababa on May 4, 2014, the member of Andenet accused the Tigrians of collaborating with the Italians and labelled them as bandas. This is just laughable and the duplicitous and propagator of venomous hate knows full well that it was his forbearers who betrayed their country by co-operating with the Egyptians, Italians and Mahdists for a few Remington rifles. History is being repeated by Habtamu’s G-7 which receives funds from Ethiopia’s foreign enemies to destroy GERD and initiate a Syrian type civil war.

Ethio-media, a home for Tigrai bashers, recently loaded a comical piece titled’ ’Do we really know TPLF?’’ The despairing editor is awestruck by Habtamu, and appears to have given up on G-7 that he has been backing since its creation by Eritrea on May 14, 2008. Now he expects the spokesman of Andenet to’’ hold his hand and take him through the precarious path out to freedom.’’ Currently, G-7 is engaged in terrorising Tigrians residing in Gonder by throwing bombs as recently happened to a 76 years old gentleman, named Ambaye Amare, who was targeted because of his ethnicity.   

Hbtamu and his party have for years been duping their followers by asserting   that Tigrians only have been the beneficiaries of the present federal mode of governance. We have been told by the editor of the down-market website that Habtamu has made a miraculous conversion and now believes that it is a ‘’ deceptive notion that TPLF is an ethnic group struggling for the interest of the people of Tigrai.’’ Who would forget the divisive rallying mantra of ‘eka wede kebele, Tigre wede Mekele’’ that was widely exploited during the 2005 general election and is still engrained in the minds of their credulous adherents?

If this man is really sincere, how come he didn’t condemn the forced ejection of thousands of Tigrians from Gonder in 2016 leaving their belongings and successful businesses behind?  Did the weak-willed editor of Ethio-media post a statement censuring this brutal and cold-blooded deed against his own people? But this is to be expected form someone who has forsaken his own identity to appease the die-hard and worthless extremists engaged in a futile attempt to undo the prosperity created over the last 25 years. Lately, his cyber space has been inundated with articles and videos from his masters campaigning against the election of Dr Tedros Adhanom for the post of WHO Director-General.       

Clearly, the minority exiled political foes seem to be in a state of utter perplexity and desperately looking for someone to retrieve them from total extinction. The editor of Ethio-media says ’’ There were moments in which the TPLF was on the verge of collapse…….two best examples are the doomed 2005 election, and again, the doomed 2016 popular uprisings in mainly Amhara and Oromia regions. And asks ‘’ why did we lose them? ’’ The response to this question is simple--- you lost because you do not have the support of the vast majority of the Ethiopia people, who view you and the likes of you as servants of Shabia and Egypt, and has nothing to do with knowing or not knowing the TPLF---- that has succeeded in making Ethiopia the 4^th largest economy in sub-Sahara Africa resulting in a 30% reduction in poverty according to CNBC Africa broadcast.

In any case, all the best with your new found hero, Habtamu, who will very soon ‘hold your hand’’ and to take you all the way to Asmara and place you on the laps of the Eritrean dictator. On the other hand, the TPLF is currently busy holding the hands of foreign investors including leading garment producers such as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and lead them to Hawasa industrial park where phase I and II are predicted to create over 150, 000 jobs. By 2025, the country envisages to earn $30 billion from apparel exports only (Just-Style article 3, May 2017). Can Habtamu and the editor of Ethio-media tells us what they have done for their country apart from servitude to foreign enemies and paying hooligans to destroy factories, ambulances and potable water reservoirs in Gonder and Bahir-dar, that is?