Word: ethiopia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Many non-Eritreans oppose the province's independence for economic as well as nationalistic reasons. Without Eritrea, with its long Red Sea coast, Ethiopia would be landlocked. International food aid, essential in combating famine when the rains fail, enters the country primarily through the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab. The Eritreans have pledged that they will permit goods to flow freely through their territory, but many Ethiopians wonder whether they can trust such promises from a group that has fought Addis Ababa for three decades...
...Democratic Front's position on Eritrea is much like Washington's: it endorses the right of the Eritreans to their referendum but wants a unified Ethiopia and so hopes that the vote, if held, goes against secession. As the day of reckoning approaches, tensions between the two groups may erupt. Already, there are strains between Meles and Issaias, who have been friends for 16 years. Issaias is upset that Meles succumbed to U.S. pressure to promise elections within a year. Meles is angry that Issaias reneged on his original pledge to participate in the transitional government to be established...
Then there is the problem of the Oromos, who form the largest group of all in Ethiopia. The Oromo Liberation Front was annoyed that while the Tigreans marched into the capital, they were left on the sidelines. Though the front, with only 7,000 fighters, is militarily insignificant, the Oromo constitute 40% of the country's 51 million people. The Oromo rebels are pressing their demands for a referendum on either autonomy or independence for the southern provinces, their heartland. That call has done nothing to ease long-standing suspicions between the Oromo and Tigrean groups, who have clashed...
Given the disparate agendas of all the factions, the prospects for putting together an enduring government within a month are slight. The chances that Ethiopia will then proceed to build a true democracy are slimmer still. The country has no history of democracy, and the forces that now espouse it are only recent converts. While the factions in authority today may prove more progressive and able than the antiquated regime they replaced, peace and democracy remain distant goals. The Kalashnikov is sure to have its place in Ethiopia for some time to come...
Shoshana Nadou plummeted into the modern world in 1984, when she and 7,500 other Jews from remote villages in Ethiopia were secretly airlifted to Israel. "Everything looked so new and scary," she says. "One old woman smashed a television with a broom when she saw a picture of a fire." Now Nadou, 21, is firmly entrenched in the Israeli middle class. She and her husband Eyal, a construction worker, own a three-room apartment in the coastal city of Ashdod. Two of her brothers are in the Israeli army, and another recently graduated from college. "We've been transformed...