Ethiopia and human rights
Jailed for doing his job
The Economist
July 17, 2012
ETHIOPIA’S prime minister, Meles Zenawi, likes to present himself to the world as a peacemaker and a paragon of development. At a recent summit of African leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, which is also the headquarters of the African Union, he sought to mediate between the two Sudans. He also made much of a huge loan to help connect Ethiopia’s mega-dam projects to a regional power grid.
The bad side of Mr Meles was on show before the African grandees arrived, when a prominent journalist, Eskinder Nega, was sentenced to 18 years in prison—for doing his job. He had persistently criticised the government for stifling dissent. After his newspaper had been shut down by the authorities, he had been publishing online.
Mr Nega, who won a major award in May from PEN America, a writers’ club that promotes press freedom, fell the victim to the same anti-terrorism laws he had tried to question. Shortly before his arrest in September last year, he had written a column criticising the government for jailing several of his colleagues, as well as two Swedish journalists, under vague anti-terror statutes passed in 2009. Along with 23 others, including opposition activists and fellow journalists, he was convicted of links to a banned opposition group based in the United States.
Mr Nega has been in and out of prison in his homeland since first opening a newspaper in 1999. His reports of violence by security forces that followed a disputed election in 2005 got him and his wife jailed for 17 months. Not everyone is as dogged as the 43-year-old blogger: the government’s willingness to jail critics has driven many journalists into exile. Many of those convicted alongside him had already fled abroad.
On a recent visit to Addis Ababa, Baobab attempted to set up a round table with local journalists to talk about challenges to freedom of expression. All but one of the participants withdrew at the last minute, several admitting that they were afraid of arrest. A veteran human-rights activist, Mesfin Woldemariam, did turn up to express his frustration at how Western governments friendly to Mr Meles are prepared to ignore his government’s human-rights abuses.
The American chapter of PEN is among many groups that have denounced Mr Nega’s sentence, calling on governments to reflect on their relations with Ethiopia. Many diplomats in Addis Ababa hoped that their polite lobbying and their presence at Mr Nega’s trial would soften the outcome. It did not.
12 thoughts on “Zenawi’s Police State: The Economist”
It’s sad to send Mr. Nega prison with baseless allegation.
the sad thing is those western countries keeps on talking about democrasy.but you see them working hand and gloves with this killers.specialy africans should not expect any support from the west.their was a little hope from obama adminstration when he took office but as we know it didnt happen
It’s shame to the western countries. They should know by now who the real terrorist is. Meles Zenawi and his Kangaroo court.
TPLF is terrorist orgaization
fascist Meles has been committing serious crimes for years. Unfortunately due to the poor politics of the WEST which is supporting friendly tyrants he is terrorizing the Ethiopian people for the last 21 years. Please say no to state terrorism in Ethiopia.
In ethiopia no elected government, no justice,no law. woyanne still exercises the Dedebit rebel’s TPLF Manifesto to eradicate other ETHIOPIAN ethic groups from the ethiopia.But sad thing is the Western and USA provides Money & wepon for them to kill other ethiopians. This is the worrest time to ethiopia in the History of local colonial eara.
he deserve to be in jail for what he had committed…..he was a trader…He wasn’t a journalist at all
He was double standard…..
he deserve to be in jail for what he had committed…..he was a trader…He wasn’t a journalist at all
He was double standard…..LOng live Jegnawe Meles……Hale for Elias Nuckel head
The terrorist regime of Meles will crumble and disappear like a morning dew very soon. The junta has succeeded in alienating close to 95% of Ethiopian people and will pay the price for this affair. Sadly, the US government as usual is supporting dictator Meles, in keeping with the American tradition of supporting merciless dictators like Mobutu, Saddam Hussein and Mubarak. The truth is this one sided policy will backfire and Ethiopians will remove Meles from power despite the backing of some immoral countries. We will prevail over injustice and dictatorship. The price Eskinder and thousands of other heroes and heroines of Ethiopia are paying is a deserved price for our intended victory to remove the most cancerous, barbaric and inhumane system in Africa.
Isn´t it enough for us to hear the old diplomatic jargon of the western politicians:
“we are deeply concerned”, or
“It is unacceptable act”, or
“we follow everything closely…” bla bla bla
WE have to handle our fate for ourselves.
The end of Woyane/TPLF is nearer than ever.
Ethiopian heroes fight themselves for thier loved country.
Ethiopia foreever.
The clock in Meles’s life must be getting pretty loud by now, tic, tac,tic, tac…
The West needs to get over the idea that any people who oppose tyrants must be an improvement. Often, the people who oppose dictators end up being dictators themselves. This is especially so in the Middle East and Africa, where countries that overthrow dictators end up not with “freedom”, but just a new version of terrorist tyranny.
While I’m all in favor of breaking Meles’s hold on Ethiopia and packing him and his henchmen off to Kaliti prison, it would seem that many of the groups lined up to succeed him would impose similar controls and terror on the Ethiopian population. None of them seems to cooperate each other. My message is clear and short.
Opposition groups unite to defeat the ruling party in Ethiopia.
That is precisely why I, who in 2008 contributed up to the individual campaign fund limit refuse to support Obama this time around. May the west find there poster child the drag tell of a genocidal mission, on the eternal side of judgment where they have no power to avail him.
Long Live Ethiopia!