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Obama and the prospects for democracy in Ethiopia

By F. Hager

Barack Obama will become the next president of the United States if all goes well in the next few days. Many Ethiopian-Americans are exuberant about the changes he will bring to America. They also hope his election will end the Bush Administration’s support for tyranny in Ethiopia.

But will an Obama administration be different when it comes to democracy in Ethiopia? Will the new team reevaluate the Bush administration’s coddling of human rights abusers in the name of fighting terrorism?

As things stand now, an Obama administration may not be all that different unless supporters of democracy make their case early and forcefully.

Why? Here are two reasons: 1) Ethiopia’s regime has found protectors in the American diplomatic, intelligence and military bureaucracy using tremendous financial resources at its disposal; and 2) at least two key Obama foreign policy advisors have historically been sympathetic to Ethiopia’s ruling group.

Obama’s top foreign policy advisor, Dr. Susan Rice, has a history of sympathy for the Zenawi regime. Rice was a member of the National Security Council and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affair under President Clinton.

Another troublesome Africa advisor to the Obama team is Gail Smith. Smith is also another NSC staffer during the Clinton years. She has a long and mysterious history of involvement with Ethiopia’s ruling Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF).

When Ethiopia’s current leaders were guerilla fighters, Gail Smith entered the then-province of Tigre through the Sudan, joined the fighters and spent considerable time promoting their cause. While she was a leading cheerleader of the TPLF, her husband, Don Connell, held the Eritrean franchise, espousing the Eritrean cause.

The personal interests of former diplomats and intelligence officials who have thrown their lot with the ruling party have complicated the Bush administration’s policy in Ethiopia.

Using tremendous financial resources at its disposal, Ethiopia ruling elite has carefully cultivated personal alliances with US diplomats stationed in Addis, State and Defense Department officials as well as people in the intelligence community.

In addition to clandestine contacts, Ethiopia’s ruling group has paid official Washington lobbyists enormous amounts of money to promote its image. By and large, this has been a successful strategy as the regime has literally gotten away with murder and with crimes against humanity.

There is a disturbing pattern of American officials keeping quiet whenever Ethiopia’s rulers violated human rights. These same diplomats later enter into mutually beneficial financial and other relationships with the ruling party.

Take, for example, the case of former US Ambassador Irvin Hicks. As soon as his ambassadorship ended, Mr. Hicks took employment with Sheik Mohammed Al-Amoudi – a businessman closely allied with the ruling party. Mr. Hicks was known for his inability to speak up against human rights abuses in the early years of the Zenawi administration.

Another example is Tibor Nagy, a former US Ambassador to Ethiopia. Mr. Nagy has been among the ardent defenders of Ethiopia’s leaders. Nagy wrote a 2007 New York Times op-ed piece (co-authored with another pro-regime former US Ambassador Vicki Huddleston) calling for the defeat of a human rights bill — H.R. 2003: Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007.

Nagy leveraged his ambassadorship to Ethiopia to become Associate Provost at Texas Tech University. Upon returning to Texas, Nagy quickly established a sister university relationship between the ruling party’s Mekelle University and Texas Tech.

Ambassador Nagy was also instrumental in making exclusive arrangements for the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences to exhibit the “Lucy” fossils. Lucy is the famous and very fragile 3.2 million-year-old skeleton that had never left Ethiopia before. Many experts, including those at the Smithsonian, considered the move reckless. But thanks to Nagy’s influence Lucy was whisked away from Ethiopia secretly in the darkness of night.

Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, is yet another high-level official with close ties to the Zenawi regime. Frazer first became enamored with the Zenawi group when she worked as a staffer at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2004.

Those were the years during which the Zenawi regime fabricated “evidence” of terrorists hiding behind every East African bush. It was also during these years that the foundations were laid for the secret Bush-Zenawi alliance that is now known as the African Guantanamo.

A lobbying group called the National Summit for Africa sponsored a 2004 exclusive event at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington. Jendayi Frazer was the main attraction and the keynote speaker.

Frazer has spent a disproportionate amount of time defending the Zenawi government since becoming Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 2004.

Because the Bush Administration considered Zenawi a major regional operative in the so-called war on terror, Frazer justified various criminal activities by Ethiopia’s ruling group. Frazer had, for example, refused to speak up against the stealing of the 2005 elections and the subsequent massacre of civilians by Mr. Zenawi’s troops. She has also been among the architects and cheerleaders of the 2007 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.

Once the sun sets on the Bush Administration and following in the footsteps of previous American diplomats, one should not be surprised if Frazer parlays her relationship with Ethiopia’s rulers into a personally beneficial arrangement

Africa has been a low priority for various US administrations. African countries are held in low esteem by the American foreign policy establishment. Consequently, bureaucrats assigned to Africa are not necessarily America’s best and the brightest. An Africa assignment usually comes right before retirement, making the functionaries susceptible to compromising their integrity in exchange for a comfortable retirement.

To their credit, Ethiopia’s leaders have understood this dynamic and taken full advantage of it. Influence buying has clearly paid off for the Ethiopian regime.

Compared to Ethiopia’s Zenawi, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe looks like a boy scout. Yet, American officials bent over backwards to play down Zenawi’s human rights abuses.

The United States used its power and influence to play a constructive role in several elections throughout the world. In Kenya, Pakistan Ukraine and Zimbabwe, the US put pressure on the incumbents to play fair, to make compromises and to respect the will of the people.

Ethiopia has been the exception. The government of Prime Minister Zenawi of Ethiopia stole the 2005 elections and brazenly massacred civilians when people took to the streets to protest. Security forces “fatally shot, beat or strangled” 193 people in June and November of 2005. Forty of the dead were teenagers, including a girl and a boy aged

The Bush administration refused to condemn the killings or put pressure on Zenawi to desist from further violence. The administration was willing to overlook Zenawi’s crimes because, among other things, Ethiopian leaders were collaborating on secret projects that included the kidnapping of East Africans suspected of terrorism. The self-serving information about terrorists was frequently supplied by the Ethiopian regime.

Ethiopian leaders were emboldened by the support from the United States. Some 40,000 people were thrown into hastily constructed concentration camps. Many opposition supporters and leaders were killed or jailed.

US support for democracy in Ethiopia rarely went beyond lip service. Behind the scenes, it was even worse. The Bush administration used both overt and covert means to support Zenawi’s illegal rule and his dismantling of the opposition. Ethiopia’s opposition was practically decimated overnight. The press was muffled; human rights advocates were threatened and thrown in jail. Whatever flicker of democracy that existed leading up to the 2005 elections were quickly extinguished.

The Ethiopian government has entrenched itself in the American civil, military and intelligence bureaucracy. Even a change in administration will not easily dislodge long-established relationships disguised as US policy interests.

We are not suggesting that Obama’s advisors — Dr. Susan Rice or Gail Smith — have already been corrupted by Ethiopia’s lobbyists. But they have not admitted their past mistakes — the havoc and pain US support for an unpopular group has caused for 77 million Ethiopians.

There are suggestions even now that influential Obama advisors such as Dr. Rice are inclined to give “more time” to the thugs running this much-suffering nation. A continued support for Zenawi is frequently justified in terms of US interests.

Any more support for Ethiopia’s tormentors under any pretext is unconscionable and bodes ill for pro-democracy forces.

So-called foreign aid has been among the chief instruments in the oppression of Ethiopian people. Ethiopia’s regime presents a meek and honest face to foreign alms givers. (To Ethiopians, the Zenawi folks display an arrogant, disdainful and brutal face.) In return, the foreign enablers have generously rewarded the regime to the tune of $2 billion every year for the last 17 years.

Obligations of the Diaspora
Those of us in the Diaspora have an obligation and a new opportunity to come together and educate the international community about the duplicitous nature of Ethiopia’s leaders. We must:
• create an umbrella organization to expose the anti-democratic nature of the ruling Tigray Peoples Liberation Front;
• document the economic crimes;
• document regime atrocities and human rights abuses; and
• expose the regime by gathering facts and telling the truth to its enablers.

Now is the time to present our case to an Obama administration and to request that the Bush administration’s disastrous policies be immediately reviewed. Now is the time to ask that the United States disassociate itself from the oppressors of 77 million people.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]

13 thoughts on “Obama and the prospects for democracy in Ethiopia

  1. Hager i realy apriciate your consern. i was dicused with friends about DR. susan right will became a forigen minister for Obama adminstatin. She is realy pro meles and scary for ethiopians. we shoud do something through ethiopian for obama group befor things getting wrong

  2. I think it’s been almost two years since everybody talking about the 2008 election. Majority Ethiopians believe that, if McCain win the white house, it will be anther 3rd term of gorge bush administration. I feel the same way. But how come no body talking about if Obama win the white house we are going to face most probably anther bill Clinton administration? Maybe most of you going to asking me what is wrong with that? If you say so, I think you have bad memory. But if you asking me I don’t like to see anther similar to Clinton administration after what they did to Africans, especially to Ethiopia and Rwanda. How money of you remember when Clinton parsing fascist meles zanawe and issays? He was saying that how we Africans so laky to have this two yang and democrat leaders. While these tow fascists are killing million Ethiopians lift and right, especially thousands incent amharas. Clinton was talking shit despite human right watch report. I feel like Obama will do the same thing. If he is not worse. Anyway do you guys understand English Language? Or you gust lessening only pro Obama media like NPR, CNN.etc. I think that’s why you guys messed up. Obama supporters do you understand when Obama say “if I am president we American will never invade any country gust because they are dictator, we only going to war if our interest in danger “so whets make you to think Obama scarifies American interest for us. For Obama sadam husine (who kill millions Iraq) is gust a dictator so live him alone. If you do remember Obama was strongly against the removing of sadame husine. For Obama those two (black Hitler) fascist meles and issayas (who kill millions Ethiopians) are gust a dictator so live them alone. Even thou I hate those terrorist Somalis, I am so happy what they did to fascist meles zanawe army (the agzi). See my brother the Somalis did not weight tile Obama taking over the white house and stop the money giving to fascist meles zanawe then fascist meles cut and rune. No no no baby they start fighting as soon as fascist mele army (agzi) landed in their soil. Instead of doing the same thing. We cry almost the last 20 years. Stop blaming the united state of America for everything. Thinks god our grandparents did not weight outside help to fight fascist Italy. Can you imaging by now we will be head down whenever we walk in front of white people like fascist shabiy children.

  3. You idea is noble; however, American foreign policy is always based on their own interest regardless who is the president and I am sure there would not be any change of their policy even if Obama win the election.
    American rhetoric of spreading democracy is a cover up, but the truth is not further than advancing their own benefit and protecting the tyrants who advance American interest in the region.
    I personally think that instead of depending American law makers it is better to coordinate our struggle against the common enemy and continue the struggle.
    Nothing is mightier than the power of the people and I am sure if we be able to coordinate our struggle and minimize our difference for the sake of the common good we will be victories.

  4. My bro and sisters here, I solute you first. Secondly, not only Somali and Ethiopia, but the entire Horn of Africa including Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti is setup. The west is keeping an eye on the Natural Resources and the strategic location of these countries. We have been setup because we are killing each other for the last fifty years. So, no matter who wins the White House, our despair and agony will continue. And don’t be mistaken, the west is not run by the Presidents nor Prime Ministers nor Chancellors; It is run by establishment. I hope I am wrong but until we realise that we will truly loose. Just ask yourself, how much money all of the countries in the Horn Africa region spent on Military in the last fourty years and then compare that how much money was spent on education. If you do the research, that should give you the bigger bicture. With respect to Meles’s invasion of Somalia, just ask yourself, who is paying for it? I know the first answer is US. That may be half-way true but in all honesty, they are not the only ones who have paid for it. Just look at the across the red sea and you know which country. It is all about energy and making sure we, the peoples of Horn Africa, do not take advantage of our Natural Resources. The global Western Elite does not have boundaries. They are in US, Europe, and the Middle East. The Horn of Africa region is a reserve for the Western economies and we are set to remain in perpetual wars, despair, and lack of full understanding of who is behind all of these misery that we are in including our own stupidity.

  5. While you got some of the people correct there was one mistake, Susan Rice has a bad relationship with Meles. During the 1998 war with Eritrea, she was the undersecretary of state for African Affairs. At the beginning of the war, Meles agreed to sign cease fire agreement but once he started willing the war he changed his mind and Rice went nuts and clearly made a statement that the US can’t work Meles.
    One thing we shouldn’t underestimate is also the Biden factor. Joe Biden will play a major role in US foreign policy and we know his position against Meles and all the letters he wrote and I doubt he will be changed by any lobbying group. So, I think the future is bright to see the US – Ethiopia relationship change any may be even the 2010 election in Ethiopia.

  6. I agree with KOKO in that “American foreign policy is always based on their own interest regardless who is the president..”
    and “…instead of depending American law makers it is better to coordinate our struggle against the common enemy and continue the struggle.” statements.
    The question raised by Hager, in my opinion, highlights just that and does not contradict it at all.
    We should always have our eyes on the struggle back home but while here lets do something to effect some change, however minute, in the policy of the American Government. This is not equivalent to depending on the laws of the United States, but creatively using it to our advantage. Let the people at home do their part, ie liberating themselves and lets do our share of help by coordinating our efforts to achieve same.
    Though not novel or new, Hager’s proposals are good. We should rather concentrate in implementing them.

  7. I have been telling you all that the modus operandi of the State department will not radically change toward the Horn of Africa. It may go for the worse if Somalia stabilzes or turns into totally incapacitated society to a point it will not be suitable to be a haven for terrorists that can threaten the West and their allies. It seems looking at the latest path where things are going over there indicates such a scenario. Then the US and European governments will have no reason to spend their scarce resources in this very austere day and age for no cause for conerns. And no one has the right to criticize if the US policy is not changing with the new president. They are not the solution because they are not part of the problem. In fact, the have been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid into that country. They have the right to protect their interest and way of life when they are faced with threats. It is up to our own hardened as concrete heads to find solutions. Stop blaming others for own faults. It is just an execuse that should not be execused!!!

  8. Why are we expecting other leader or Nations to stabilize the political structure of our country???We are Ethiopian, lets stand up for our nations and help our people. No one will ever make the changes for us. We have to be the hope and inspiration for our country people and for other generations to come. Every democracy and constitutional government was created by the people who consist of that nation. Che led Cubans to freedom, Mendela, Martin Luther King Jr and Gundi. The last 2 people achieved freedom and equilty only by means of peace. However,we all know that is near impossible in Ethiopia. We have to gain our own democracy by any means necessary and stop waiting for the next U.S president to achieve our goal.

  9. A very good article. Thank you Miss(?)F. Hagar for the excellent analysis.
    Most of us like what we hear from Obama about issues concerning the U.S., and want to vote for him. He sure deserves our vote and our total support, I think. However, like any other community, we are not one issue oriented one. We who have obtained US citizenship do not and shouldnt cast our vote based on the candidate’s view on EPRDF. We have to look his or overall policy in order to support the candidate. If it so happens that we agree on all fundamental issues regarding the States but disagree on how to see the Ethiopian Government, then we should still vote for Barrack but work hard to influence the candidate to change that particular offensive policy. Hager is right in warning us that supporting Obama means supporting his overall policies and not necessarily his Ethiopian stand. For that we have to prepare, to unite and work hard in order to influence him and the people around him. Otherwise we are in for a big disappointment. That seems to be F. Hager’s message and I totally agree with her/his message.

  10. which ever wins the election, most probably Obama, is not going to remove our tyrany EPRDF its our unity,and wise strugle against dictatorship that wins, plus affects their policy towards our country.

  11. This is for KOROJO. iF WE DON’T STAND UP AND UNITE FOR OUR NATION WHO ELSE WILL? It should be the top job we got to do. I was raised in the U.S and i never leaved through his adminstration but I know he has not done anything to make our country better. He is another Mangstu in my opinion. I do not respect the fact that you are being sarcastic…if you were. Well I did not say just through means of violence so you can stop the nonsense because i’m willing to die for ETHIOPIA.

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