Egypt Rejects Any Project That Risks Its Water Safety - Minister

Egypt's stance towards Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam is clear and did not change, the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Bahaa Eddin said on Tuesday in an official statement.

He explained that Ethiopia's decision to start diverting the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River's two major tributaries, for building its dam does not mean that Egypt approves its construction.

The in-construction Renaissance Dam would supply Ethiopia with more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity. A move described by Ethiopian officials as a historic achievement.

On the other hand, this move raises concern in Egypt about how it could seriously reduce the downstream water flow of the Nile River.

The power-generating dam is predicted to reduce Egypt's and Sudan's share of Nile River water by 18 billion cubic meters annually.

"We are still waiting for the report of tripartite technical committee (made up of experts from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia) on the effects of the dam on Egypt's water safety," the Water Resources Minister said.

"Our initial position is not to accept any project that would negatively affect Egypt's water resources," Bahaa Eddin said, stressing that the government would tackle the situation based on confirmed information.

The minister added that Egypt's current crisis of water management and distribution confirms that the government cannot compromise "a single drop of water from the Nile."

He explained that Egypt does not oppose any development project in any of the Nile Basin countries, provided that these projects do not harm the downstream countries.

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The 50th shame years of Africa Union celebration in Ireland

Oromo Community Ireland | May 29, 2013

This week African Union (AU) celebrated its Golden Jubilee of what it calls the 50th years of achievement celebration under the headline of strengthening Pan-Africanism and African renaissance. But for the Oromo community in Ireland the story was different. On the day of the African Day Celebration the Oromo’s stall tells a different story, a story that questions the very importance of the existence of the AU; the story that tells the inability of the AU to deal with the issues of its people; the story of Oromo’s years to years true life, the story of slavery in the country the AU celebrate what it says the past good days.

We were opposing the existence of AU, though we know that many intellectuals, analysts and media outlets question the need for AU’s existence itself. We hope AU, one day may become a better organization that stands for African people. But so far AU has failed do any meaningful thing for Africans. To raise just some of them, first what did AU do about the question of Oromo for self determination, what did it say the killing, disappearances and torture of Oromo students, intellectuals, farmers and businessmen? What did AU with decades’ long conflict in Darfur? Why it can not solve it. What did AU say about the mass killing in Kenya? Did it say anything the conflict in Congo? What did the AU say about the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe? Most the pressing African problems were dealt with by AU but by the governments and communities outside Africa whether there is a calculated benefit or not, the problems of Libya, the genocide of Rwanda, the crisis in Somalia, are only few where AU show little or no role to sole African problems.

AU even seems do not care about the people when they sit in the AU meeting with those notorious dictators such as the late Meles, Bashir of Sudan, Mugabe of Zimbabwe, etc. These people are isolated from international community, and some of them are indicted by international criminal court because of the multiple genocide the have committed to their people. That may be the reason why many people say AU is a bunch of corrupt leaders who try to defend each other against mass movement and public upraising. We Oromos still do not give up on AU. We believe AU can do better to solve the problems of Oromo and other peace loving African people. That is why we were telling them that we are still in colony by the time AU celebrates its Golden jubilee. The shame is that AU had to know and oppose to the colonizers. AU may have done well when choosing Finfinne (Addis Ababa) as its centre because Finfinne is the centre of the country of Oromo people who used the Gadaa system for generations. Gadaa system can be said the first democratic public institution used by us until we fall under colony. But, AU did not know, or fail to acknowledge that it has been holding meeting in the empire that is anti peace, anti freedom and anti human rights. AU must have known that Ethiopia is a prison of human race, a prison of freedom, a prison of democracy. This has a devastative effect on the image of AU and needs to be considered.

We Oromos in Ireland spoke very clearly and loudly while celebrating the African Day in Dublin. Whatever achievement AU celebrates, we Oromos are African who are still in slavery. We told this to the African and international community implicitly that AU fall short of its responsibility of standing for its people. We told to the media to the big and to the small, to the young and to the adult, to the friends and to the enemies that we are still fighting slavery, injustice and state of colonization. We will continue doing same until we get free. On the day we created a scene that posse and a point that people discuss. Everyone came to the celebration understood that our question is beyond political question. We are asking for our freedom, our dignity and the right to our own country and resources. We have the right to be free, the right to our own resources, and the right to nature given human rights. AU and the international community have the obligation, under the international law and under their own stands, to support Oromos, the fight against the colony. Whether AU comes to its mind or not, we will continue our journey to freedom. We will fight ‘terror with terror’, as someone said, until we set ourselves free.

Oromia Shall Be Free!

Oromo Community Ireland

www.oromocommunityireland.com

oromocommunityireland@yahoo.ie

ayyaantuu