UNHCR ignores plight of Ex-Ethiopian Navy men in Yemen

UNHCR ignores plight of Ex-Ethiopian Navy men in Yemen

By Our Staff Writer
July 16, 2003

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When the Eritrean-controlled TPLF seized power in 1991, members of the Ethiopian Navy fled with their fleet to neighboring Yemen across the Red Sea.

One of the ships they took to Yemen was Ethiopia, formerly called USS-Orca, but later given to Emperor Haile-selassie, who christened it Ethiopia, and was used to train the massive Ethiopian navy in the early ’60s (See photo – courtesy of US Navy). When Ethiopia’s Eritrean-agent Prime Minister Meles Zenawi turned the country into a landlocked nation by declaring the entire Red Sea territory belonged to Asmara, tens of thousands of Ethiopian families who used to live in the once-busiest Red Sea Port of Assab were evicted from their homes and left to rot in the streets of Addis Ababa. With a blessing from Meles, the Eritreans were further awarded with what was the Ethiopian Naval forces – minus manpower.

With Meles Zenawi in control of state power for over 12 years, former members of the Ethiopian Navy who sought political refuge in Yemen live a dismal life, neglected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Yemeni authorities who have proved indifferent when Meles Zenawi’s hirelings constantly harass the once-proud members of the Ethiopian Naval Forces.

Today a beleaguered Ethiopia sits on a time-bomb that will explode when the current anti-Ethiopia ruling regime collapses, and a would-be people’s government takes up the task of restoring the Red Sea territory. It is a legitimate national interest the 65 million Ethiopians have long sought after, come what may.