Opposition against Tedros Adhanom briefly disrupted World Health Assembly meeting
May 22,2017
borkena,Ethiopian News
“No Tedros for WHO” shouted Zelalem Tesema ,an Ethiopian activist, disrupting the Seventieth World Health Assembly meeting which is underway in Geneva.
He made his protest voice against Dr Tedros Adhanom, one of the candidates for the World Health Organization Director General Position, before he was led out of the Assembly Hall by civilian security personnel.
Concomitantly, Ethiopians were holding a massive rally against Tedros outside of the meeting hall where World Health Assembly was having its meeting.
There has been an online protest campaign against the candidacy of Tedros Adhanom in major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Tedros Adhanom is a member of minority ethnic based party, Tigray People’s Liberation Front which is ruling the country ruthlessly despite what many say is “financed” narratives of “double double digit economic growth” even as the country is facing one of the worst famines in its history.
Tendency to see the election of Tedros Adhanom as World Health Organization Director General as a political prestige project is apparent among among Tigray Peoples Liberation Front ruling elites and their lower level cadres.
Perhaps a clear evidence for that is that Tedros Adhanom’s campaign is funded by TPLF party. There are even allegations that the regime is spending millions of dollars in fees for lobbyist to make Tedros Adhanom World Health Organization Director General.
Even ethnic Tigray alleged opposition party members, from another Tigray based ethnic party,are rallying support for Tedros Adhanom but their support campaign is, on the surface, wrapped with “Ethiopian identity.”
They are playing ethnic politics card against those Ethiopians who are opposing Tedros Adhanom. For them, those Ethiopians, which is an absolute majority, who oppose his candidacy are doing so only because he is a member of Tigray ethnic group; it constitutes about 6 percent of the entire population. But this is something that Ethiopians trashed on grounds that they were rallying support in support of ethnic Tigray opposition when he passed away. Another point they refer to is that Ethiopia’s most respected Olympic leged Mirutse Yifter was also from Tigray origin.
Why Ethiopians oppose Tedros Adhanom
The basis of opposition against Tedros, many argue, is his involvement in the killings hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestants. Last year alone, more than well over 1000 civilians are killed by the regime that Tedros Adhanom is fiercely and passionately supporting – the ethic TPLF government.
Besides, Tedros Adhanom is known among Ethiopians for incompetence and many believe that he he does not have what it takes to be a minister except for his ethnicity which gave him membership to the ruling Tigray Peoples’s liberation front – dominating the Ethiopian state economically, militarily and politically.
The New York Times recently wrote that Tedros Adhanom covered cholera epidemic.
Despite all that, big names like Bill Gates and Western Countries including the United States are rumored to be supporting Tedros Adhanom’s bid for Director Genral position in World Health Organization.
The election will take place tomorrow. Three of the candidates are scheduled to speak tomorrow before the general assembly. Tedros will speak first according to news update by WHO.
The result of the election is expected to be announced same day.
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The post An Ethiopian activist took opposition to Tedros Adhanom to World Health Assembly in Geneva ; disrupted the meeting appeared first on Borkena Ethiopian News.