Abdirashid Dulane, an erstwhile chief of puppeteer regime in the occupied Somalis in Ogaden posted an article on aigaforum.com, decrying for the late dictator Meles Zenawi with all the redundant rhetoric of EPRDF cadres of portraying Meles as a visionary leader. Abdirashid, a two decades political stooge of TPLF, painted a glowing picture on the reign of terror of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. He stated at the introductory part of his article "But time and again we are comforted by the very fact that his vision and legacy has, more than ever, become the rallying cause for the fast transformation of our nation and its tens of millions of people, who have made a pledge to change the hitherto unpleasant image of their beloved country and their livelihood for the better”. This knee-jerk reaction to Zenawi’s demise barely reflects the reality on the ground in present day Ethiopia which its people lick the wounds of the late iron-fist ruler whose reign of terror left mental agony to the very citizens he supposed to take out of the political darkness that they suffered successively. It is mind-boggling Abdirashid to attempt to present the late dictator’s bigoted leadership as a world statesman. As a patron of the butcher’s political patronage, he would flatter his master if he was alive but why grovel while already dead in this irrelevant time? Abdirashid has one political point to secure in his lickspittle piece which is more about paranoia of his fading stooge political foot print.

1) To woo TPLF executives and former zenawi’s entourage to desperatelyWINattention of the ruling elite in Ethiopia to offer him ill-nominated post from the Addis Ababa cruel regime. Nothing more, nothing less.

Abdirashid stated to further his untruth and solid sycophancy "Comprehending and saluting EPRDF’s team spirit and its salient organizational discipline that venerates collective deeds/achievements, which Meles so highly respected and faithfully adhered to, as it is, yet one can’t help forgiving himself by appreciating and marveling at his exceptional cerebral aptitude, intellectual competence and analytical faculty. He was the best at whatever he did. Period!” contrary to his sycophantic op-ed as Zenawi manservant, Meles was an outright dictator and the architect of the political and social marginalization in Ethiopia. He was a micro-manager who had no respect for the team spirits and organizational disciplines that he blindly credited. He introduced a pseudo federalism based on ethnic politics, and yet he imposed his own puppets to every region. Zenawi may have been an intellectual, but he was immoral. He spearheaded an all-out state terrorism approach by committing extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention, and dislocation of people, land grapping, denial of all basic and natural rights. Regrettably, his birth place (Ogaden) of the servile Abdirashid Dulane, was the most abused region in comparison with the entire regions which ethnic tigrai minorities abusively rule. There have been a number of impeccable human rights organizations and media houses that documented the atrocities of the late dictator. I don’t need to rehash all the documented brutalities, facts and figures that the cruel Zenawi personified. I would grant Abdirashid a brief reprieve if he could share with the readers’ just one quote that credits Zenawi’s tarnished human rights records by one single respected human rights organization or by an objective media outlet. Mr Dulane cannot cover up the dreadful practices of his late political god father. One quote is enough for me to summarize the atrocious and the objectionable policies of ethnic cleansing that zenawi committed deliberately "Ethiopia’s military campaign has triggered a serioushumanitarian crisis, according to several humanitarian organisations.

According toHuman Rights Watch, civilians in the Somali region were trapped between the warring parties. HRW learned that dozens of civilians have been killed in what appears to be a deliberate effort to mete out collective punishment against a civilian population suspected of sympathizing with the rebels.^[20]

Refugees fleeing the crackdown told stories of widespread violence, with entire villages being destroyed along with arbitrary theft, rape and murder by Ethiopian soldiers.^[21]In October 2007,The Independentreported that the situation in Ogaden had begun to mirror theDarfur conflict, with refugees stating that government troops had burned villages and raped and killed civilians” wikipedia)

Sadly, Abdirashid did not stop his false narratives. He went further and claimed "Today Ethiopia is at peace with itself, its neighbors and is considered a champion of peace regionally, continentally and internationally. In recent years our professional and well disciplined armed forces have diligently served in Rwanda, Burundi and Liberia as UN peace keeping forces and are currently indefatigably serving in Sudan/South Sudan and Somalia. Their missions’ undertaking has always received great acclaim, respect and adoration by the people and the countries they serve and by the international community”

At the age of information explosion, where no one monopolizes the true information; mr Abdirashid brought a robust adulation known to EPRDF cadres (the pseudo name of TPLF) that Ethiopia is at peace with itself, with its neighbors. This distorted and highly misplaced argument, fairly defines the brazen denialism which Abdirashid was mentored. Ethiopian government is enough to create rebels for itself due to its oppressive policies. This has already resulted the popular movements that were born out of the oppressed people’s like Ogaden National Liberation Front (onlf) and Ginbot 7. Gambela and Afar people have already set up their own resistance to counter the ethnic marginalization of EPRDF. It is equally worth mentioning how Ethiopia destabilized the entire horn of Africa by invading neighboring Somalia. It was Meles Zenawi who undermined the TFG and UIC when they were in talks in Khartoum. He declared war on Somalia and shattered every little hope.He displaced millions in Somalia. He starved millions in Somalia. He massacred thousands in Somalia. And he disabled hundreds of thousands. What was born out of this? Alshabab, a terrorist organization which is no longer a Somali problem but a global one was born out of Ethiopia’s invasion, albeit Somalis pay the highest price. So Abdirashid should find easy in fawning his master.

In a nutshell, if Meles Zenawi was a visionary leader, Radovan Karadzic of Serbia, the epitome of evil and genocide was a human rights defender, and Aldolf Hitler was a savior of Jews.

By Abdikani Hassan

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