Interview with Bulcha Demeksa
Ethiopian Reporter - March 30, 2008
If we can't feed our people, then how come we are maintaining a military presence in Somalia, which is much more costly?
Bulcha Demekesa, Chairman of (OFDM)

What was your relation to the PM's report?
The PM decided to limit what he wanted to discuss to inflation beforehand. Most of us (MPs) expected him to include several other issues in his bi-annual report.
Apart from inflation, he should have discussed unemployment. It is not only because of price hike that people go to bed on empty stomachs, but also because they are unemployed. We also expected to hear something about Somalia. Every day we hear and read reports on international media that Ethiopians in Somalia are dying.
The Prime Minister should have addressed the Eritrean issue, too. We also heard on the international media that Ethiopia has contributed five helicopters to the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan. We are not saying this is wrong. But as representatives of the Ethiopian people, we should have heard about it.
There is another hot issue that we hoped that the PM would raise. We hear that people and cattle are dying of starvation in Borena and Guji zones in Southern Ethiopia. Nothing was said about it. The PM talked only about inflation. Read More.