ESAT News
August 11, 2014
ESAT’s sources from the Ethiopian Defense Forces have opposed calls to contribute money for the
Meles Foundation, a foundation established in the name of the late Prime Minster Meles Zenawi.
The forces stationed in Bademe Front, Northern Ethiopia, were requested to contribute 200 birr
each every month by which soldiers will pay according to their ranks and salary scales. Although
personnel in the finance department have attempted to compel the soldiers saying that it is a
directive that came from the top, the soldiers have refused to contribute.
Similarly, a solider from the 3rd
to be apprehended for being suspected of leading the “protest”. A small pandemonium had erupted
just after this incident.
Amid this tension, the number of soldiers that defect the army is also increasing, a soldier who
recently deserted the Ethiopian Defense said. He said, soldiers that hail from one region are
benefiting from the contraband businesses that are going on near Tekeze River. Despite hard living
conditions most of the soldiers, who are not benefiting at all from this businesses, are being forced
to pay for the Foundation. “They have extra income but our little salary is being cut in the name of
contributions” he added.
There is a huge economic gap between the rank and file and the top brass of the Ethiopian Defense
Forces.
Several business people in Ethiopia often tell ESAT that they have been pushed out of the market by
Defense officials that import goods under the name of the Defesnse Ministry without paying taxes.
Major First Contingent had drowned inside Tekeze River as he was
