Facts about Ethiopia under the present Woyane/EPRDF regime:

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•  The ruling TPLF regime is a totalitarian entity under the guise of Democratic Revolution.
It absolutely controls the three pillars of government: the executive, the parliament and the judiciary;

•  The ruling regime massacres, arrests en mass, tortures, plunders, humiliates opponents, condones rapes, denies civil liberties, grossly violates the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights and commits all other acts of atrocities unacceptable to a civilized society; needless to repeat that the international community has roundly condemned these heinous crimes committed against the Ethiopia people by the Agazi special security forces under the direct command of Prime Minister Meles;

•  As a matter of deliberate policy, the ruling regime denies private land ownership to Ethiopians and uses land as a weapon to force peasants to submit to the ruthless greed of the power-thirsty Stalinists at the helm of the TPLF party; these blood-thirsty Stalinists have relegated Ethiopians to subhuman status of slavery living under serfdom strangely in the 21st century;

•  Ethiopia under the leadership of Meles is one the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world; poverty has increased, confirming the miserable failure of the much vaunted economic policy of the Stalinist regime; •  Ethiopia has incurred a massive external debt of over 10 billion United States dollars. This compares to the 0.5 and 4.2 billion US dollars for the Imperial and Dergue regimes respectively - mostly for the procurement of arms by the latter. Yet the living standard of citizens has steadily declined under the ruling regime; •  The Constitution was crafted to suit the interest of the TPLF party with little or no input from the people in free and democratic political climate; even this Constitution was repeatedly breached by Meles in the aftermath of the election of 15 May 2005; •  The Prime Minister appoints the members of the National Election Board; logically he can fire any member that he finds out of line in his capacity as an appointing authority; •  The Prime Minister appoints and fires judges; thus it would be fool hardy to expect independence of the judiciary;

•  The ruling TPLF regime has driven out of existence the nascent free media thus denying the Ethiopian people access to information from an independent source; as a result the people are subjected to a barrage of propaganda and lies incessantly spewed by the government media under the complete monopoly of the TPLF party at the expense of the taxpayers; the people are so fed up of the lies of the government media so much so that they tune in to the VOA, German Radio, Tensae Ethiopia Radio and other foreign-based radio stations to quench their scorching thirst for credible information;

The TPLF regime has been posing formidable impediments to the development of independent civic societies; the crackdown on these societies, which are essential to the development of democracy, has intensified so much so that they merely exist in name at the present time.

•  The Ethiopian Human Rights Council reported the human rights violations of the Ethiopian regime as reported, more than 2,000 people were victims of arbitrary killing on political grounds. More than 2,200 people have been wounded, more than 1,000 reported taken to custody are still unaccounted for, more than 15,000 citizens have been unlawfully laid off. 71,333 citizens have been disposed and exiled on grounds of their political convictions. Hundreds of citizens brutally bludgeoned and lashed have been permanently disabled. 14264 houses including Churches and Mosques have been burned down.2084 senior citizens have been dispossessed of their pension money.

•  In the 2003 UN Economic Commission, good governance survey of 28 African countries, Ethiopia ranked 2nd form the bottom in vital performance areas, including political devolution, corruption control, economic management, in ensuring of the freedom of the media and the civil service and the institution and of efficient operation of democratic establishments, etc.

•  In 1991 Ethiopia ranked 138 in the world in the human development performance. In the last two years Ethiopia 's rank in the 175-nation world was 169th and 170th.

•  In 1992 the number of people affected by drought was 6.2 million. In 2002/2003 the figure had gone up to over 14 million people. In 2005, with a very good weather condition, the number of people in need of relief assistance was close to 7 million people.

•  In 2002/2003 out of the 38% appropriation for general services 50% was allocated for defense. This means 19% of the GNP was set aside for defense.

•  In the late 1960's, the share of domestic savings to that of GNP was 14.2%, while this same indicator has gone down to 9.7% 10 years later. In the late 1980's domestic savings was 7.5% of GNP while in the last 13 years the level has gone down dramatically and has reached 4%.

•  Ethiopia is getting its foreign exchange mostly from foreign debt and aid and not from her exports earnings.

•  Ethiopia 's current annual per capita income is USD 100 while that of Africa as a whole is an average of USD 800.

•  In Ethiopia agriculture is a sector in which 85% of the workforce is employed has close to 50% of the gross domestic product and contributes more than 85% of the country's export products.

•  The average growth in per capita income in the last 13 years was close to 1.6%. During the previous 17 years of military rule the average growth in per capita income was close 2.6.

•  In the last 13 years in the agricultural sector, it was less by 31% than that of the Imperial regime and 15% less than what it was during the military regime.

•  Out of those holders of investment permit in both the agricultural sector and outside of it, 52% of the projects have not been able to continue with their projects, or have dropped their projects all together.

•  The illiteracy degree of Ethiopians above 15 years of age currently stands at 70%. Due to literacy campaign introduced and implemented by the previous military regime from 1974 to 1991, the illiteracy level had sunk down to 37%.

•  40% of Ethiopia 's primary school age children have no chance to go to school. Only 12% of Ethiopia 's secondary school age children have a chance to go to high school. Some 99% of high school graduates do not gain access to university.

•  Only 36% of high school teachers are known to have been appropriately trained.

•  Educational budget constitutes only a 4% share of the national annual GDP. 50% of the educational budget is dependent on aid and external credit. •  More than 10% of the people live with HIV/AIDS. Ethiopia 's second major killer is malaria, which takes a toll of 20,000 people a year. •  80% of Ethiopia 's health problems are preventable and nutrition related diseases.

•  Nearly 50% of the under 5 children are deprived of a balanced diet.

•  In Ethiopia the doctor to patient ratio is 1 to 35,000 and hospital bed to patient ratio 1 to 4,140.

•  No less than 50% of the doctors of the country are based in Addis Ababa .

•  Only 22% of the Ethiopian people are the beneficiaries of clean water service of which 77% in the urban and 13% in the rural areas.

The telephone set to user ratio is 3 to 1,000; the mobile telephone to user ratio is below zero; Television is 6 to 1,000; the radio set to user ratio is 196 to 1,000. The share of computer and Internet service in Ethiopia is still very modest with only 740 units per million users. Internet distribution is 10 per million users.

More facts on Ethiopia under Woyane will be added soon.