Ethiopian Unity Diaspora Forum Ethiopian Unity Diaspora Forum This Website is the voice of a considerable number of concerned Ethiopians. We are interested in contributing our share to the peace, security, and development of our country. This website has an open forum to allow anyone to submit articles, commentaries, or essays for posting. Even though there is no censorship of themes and central ideas, for the sake of reasoned discourse, individual contributors are urged to use proper judgment in their works, and to refrain from basing arguments on distorted facts, fabricated information, and intemperate views. We, the founding Members of the Ethiopian Unity Diaspora Forum Website (www.ethiopianunitydiasporaforum.com), are all Ethiopians who have come together for the purpose of upholding, defending, and promoting Ethiopia’s fundamental interests and nationhood. We hail from different social, religious, regional, and professional backgrounds. We are economists, educators, engineers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, physicians, military officers, enlisted men, and so on. We stand for peace, democracy, and development. We champion the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ethiopia, and therefore, we uphold the principle of one Ethiopian nation, and a single Ethiopian nationality. We are deeply concerned about the abject poverty of our people, and of Ethiopia’s inability to feed itself. As members of the Ethiopian Unity Diaspora Forum, we have committed ourselves to bring about sustained economic growth with social development. We are also convinced of the need to establish a new educational system for the country. Indeed, we consider providing quality education at all levels to all eligible Ethiopians as a sacred duty of all Ethiopians. Likewise, we are mindful of the acute need for the eradication of common diseases, and provisions for adequate health services for all Ethiopians. We are alarmed by the policy of the current regime in power in Ethiopia, which deliberately and consistently undermines Ethiopia’s national interest. We question its patriotic commitment to Ethiopia. As a result, we reject its social orientation and its political philosophy of governance. The current Ethiopian Government is undemocratic, dictatorial, and self-serving. Likewise, we repudiate the ethnic based structure of the Ethiopian State that has been imposed on the country by the regime in power in an attempt to “bantustanize” the Ethiopian society. Such a structure is aimed at destroying Ethiopian patriotism and nationalism, by replacing it with meaningless and divisive ethnicity, which will ultimately destroy the country. Consequently, we vigorously and energetically oppose this Machiavellian system of governance, and would like to inform fellow Ethiopians of the grave danger of disintegration that Ethiopia is faced with at this crucial time of its history. We are committed to the abolishment of all ethnic based government and state structures and all reserved ethnic enclaves. We support the re-institution of the provincial administrative system of the country that existed prior to the coming to power of the Military Regime and the current Government of Meles Zenawi and its associates. We will promote the establishment of democratically elected administrative structures for the provinces. We are committed to bring about constructive and meaningful changes in government accountability, democratic governance, and the observance and safeguarding of human rights of all Ethiopians. We condemn the persistent and gross violation of human rights of Ethiopians by the current regime in Ethiopia. Therefore, we will carry out sustained struggle in order to establish a democratic system of government for Ethiopia based on the rule of law, an independent judiciary, a system of checks and balances, and full accountability and transparency. We uphold the freedom of the press and the free and truthful dissemination of information on the workings of the Ethiopian Government and its officials. We are seriously concerned with the fracturing of the Ethiopian Diaspora on political, ideological, ethnic, and religious grounds, to the extent of generating atavistic passions. In this regard, we will do our best to bring together all Ethiopians in the Diaspora to be part of a unified and constructive force in building the future of the country. We are extremely concerned also about the deliberate and wide-spread negative imaging of Ethiopia and of Ethiopians to make us lose confidence in ourselves, in our history, and in our values. Hence, we will challenge all negative-imaging of Ethiopia and Ethiopians, including the distorted interpretation of our great history aimed at depriving us of a common culture, history, and civilization by the historic and new enemies of Ethiopia. We will also promote meaningful dialogue with all concerned citizens of the countries which neighbor Ethiopia with a view to promote peace, cooperation, and development. However, any secret dealings or agreements carried out by Meles Zenawi and his Government, with any of Ethiopia’s neighbors, to cede to neighboring countries any of the territories under Ethiopian sovereignty and control is illegal. We declare all such secret dealings and agreements conducted in the dark and hidden from the Ethiopian people, and executed without their knowledge and consent as null and void, and therefore, without any legally binding effect on Ethiopia. The establishment of this Forum Website is just one of our humble efforts to empower ourselves as Ethiopians to be in control of our destiny, so that we all participate as members of a united front to carry out the objectives of the Ethiopian Unity Diaspora Forum (EUDF).