By Netsanet Habtu

As I was reading the list recently released by Ginbot 7 regarding the ethnic composition of the Ethiopian army, I started thinking that our opposition to the regime for the last eighteen years has for the most part missed the point. Yes, I have known all about the speculation regarding Tigrayan domination in every aspect of Ethiopian political and economic life. What I have not seen is concrete evidence like we have started to see.

The reason I say our opposition was off the mark is because I have come to believe that what we were doing all these years was not based on a proper understanding of what the TPLF was all about. We were organizing ourselves, registering as peaceful and legal parties and treating TPLF as a normal incumbent; when in reality it was a force organized to loot and destroy our country in order to achieve some insane agenda.

I think that it is well overdue that we all; I mean all of us; admit that our country has been under enemy rule for the last eighteen years. Meles Zenawi’s rule is not your standard dictatorship that you hear or read about happening in some parts of the world today. His ruthless ethnic apartheid rule can be fairly regarded as the worst of its kind. And it is with this in mind that I want to talk about the subject of my article – a coup.

Before my readers say anything, I know that Bereket has been busy hitting the backspace key on the original “coup plot” accusation his office put out. But they did put it out once, and the genie is out of the bottle.

On April 25, the regime of Meles Zenawi came out and said it has “foiled a coup plot” by Ginbot 7 and arrested dozens of people in connection with alleged plot. Thousands more innocent people have been arrested and are being arrested to this day. The regime obviously used an accusatory tone when breaking the news. Its hirelings were running up and down the cyber space acting like some sacred object had been handled by sinners. They were enraged. Obviously, from their point of view, it is their jobs and unearned social status that is being messed with. But what they failed to consider, as always, was the perspective of millions of Ethiopians.

I know that listening to citizens is not part of their job. They work for a dictatorship. That is also why their propaganda often misses its mark and forces them to change their stories over and over in an utterly embarrassing manner.

One of the reasons why the regime abandoned its initial press release is an apparent shock at the level of fanfare with which the “coup” news was received. The news galvanized support for the accused organization, and opened people’s eyes to cracks inside the military – the regime’s supposed power base. Many Ethiopians are now left with their fingers crossed fingers sensing that something is brewing deep inside.

These reactions, obviously, are reflections of a yearning among our population. In short, most Ethiopians would like to see the regime of Meles Zenawi ousted, no ifs, and, buts about it. If a coup d’etat takes place in Ethiopia and Woyanne is eliminated most of us will be very happy and proud unlike what the delusional TPLF leaders and their supporters thought.

Every Ethiopian I know, including myself are of the opinion that the regime of Meles Zenawi should be overthrown. In fact, we think that is well overdue. The reasons are very simple. In this article, I would like to build on what a fellow citizen who blogs on UTUBO has written about this topic in this article (click here).

First, let’s briefly summarize the record of the Meles regime:

• Stolen Election: The regime of Meles Zenawi is an illegitimate government. It is in power through force and stolen elections. On May 15, 2005, millions of Ethiopians went out in a stunning display of hunger for freedom and voted Zenawi’s ruling group out of office. Ballot counting was suspended, ballot bags were stolen in many cases, peaceful protesters were killed, and almost all leaders of the main opposition party were jailed. Thousands of opposition supporters were taken to gruesome detention camps and brutally abused.War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: Stealing elections was not good enough to assure the regime an absolute grip on power. Killings, arrests and torture of citizens have continued throughout the country to this date. In the Ogaden, the regime has committed what several human rights organizations allege is a war crime. Meles Zenawi and some of his top civil and military leaders are said to be under investigation for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• Genocide: These kinds of crimes against Ethiopian citizens did not start in 2005. International human rights organizations say there is enough evidence to charge top officials of the Ethiopian regime with genocide, for the killings that took place in Gambella in 2003. In fact, the President of Genocide Watch has written an open letter to the UN Human Rights Commissioner to look into it.
• Other High Crimes: Investigations are reportedly undergoing on the street shootings of AAU students and others in 2001; the shootings of peaceful protesters in Awassa and so forth.
• Destabilizing the Horn of Africa: Meles Zenawi has also shown that he does not back down from engaging in a regional conflict if it means diverting attention from internal problems in order to buy himself a little more time. His invasion of Somalia and the subsequent occupation has left thousands of civilians dead and over a million displaced from their homes. We still do not have any official accounting of the number of Ethiopian soldiers who have been sacrificed. Here as well, international human rights organizations allege that there is sufficient evidence war crimes have been committed by the regime’s army.
• Disastrous Monetary Policy: As if these crimes are not enough to keep Meles and co. in power, the regime employs short-sighted economic policies that harm the nation gravely as long as it buys itself a little more time. In its unsuccessful attempt to gain supporters after its humiliating defeat in 2005, the regime has handed out money the country doesn’t have like Christmas presents. This has plunged Ethiopia into an upward spiraling inflation rate that is only second to Zimbabwe’s in Africa. The poor went from eating once a day to every other day. People have now resorted into rationing food for their own families.
• Rampant Corruption: For a bankrupt regime with no vision or societal values, it was important to adopt a rampant open door policy towards corruption and allow its officials to loot the country in exchange for their loyalty and blind sport. Looting has been stepped up to proportions never seen before. A report has shown that in 2006 alone money moving to British banks from Ethiopia increased by more than 100%. The last three reports by the Auditor General (two have been fired so far) show billions of Ethiopian Birr have been unaccounted for.
• Land Grabbing: What I find more frightening than the stealing of money is the level of land grabbing by high level officials, including the Prime Minister’s wife, Azeb Mesfin. In just one recent incident, for example, it has been reported that she has acquired 40K hectares of fertile land in Gondar area. It is believed that all this rush to grab large scale farming land when they know their seats are shaking hard is to lease it to Arab investors. When a new government arrives, Azeb will no doubt take with her the looted cash. But the investor will stay behind with all his paperwork showing that he made the lease “legally” and has made initial payments to the “owner” of the land. The top officials of the regime, including the Prime Minister’s wife, have thrown away any pretension of accountability. The country is being ruled by a mafia group. And this mafia group, obviously, does not care for the well being of Ethiopian citizens and the long-term interest of the country. In fact, it will destroy anything and everything that gets in its way of looting the country blind.
• Crashing Economy and More: The Ethiopian economy under the TPLF is crashing. After 18 years of misrule, millions of Ethiopians are dependent on food aid every year. The prospect for the future under this regime is bleak. The quality of education is beyond poor. A recent report by Capital newspaper states that 9 out of 10 vocational college students could not pass national competency exam. Any pretension by the regime of solving this problem all by itself through “reform” proclamations will not be the solution because, as long as its policies of exclusion and repression continue, so will the migration of educated Ethiopians abroad.
• High Level of Immigration: Because there is no economic and political security in Ethiopia, the number of Ethiopians leaving their country for “somewhere” is increasing by the day. We hear horrendous stories of a thousand illegal Ethiopian immigrants in prison in Tanzania; a hundred in Malawi; about eighty Ethiopian women in a Beirut prison; some Ethiopians looking for jobs in Iraq; and others following dangerous paths through Latin America to get to North America. These were news headlines in the last two months or so alone. For anyone observing the way Ethiopians are fleeing from their country in all directions, it is fair to conclude that the country is like a house on fire that its inhabitants are all forced to evacuate.
• Ethiopian Interests Endangered: Many Ethiopians consider that their country is ruled by some kind of foreign occupying force. Recently, for example, a large area of land was given to the Sudan with no explanation to the Ethiopian public. In addition, the regime’s use of war with neighboring countries as a way to divert attention from internal problems has made it a destabilizing and dangerous force in the Horn of Africa. This is earning us enmity that will probably last for generations.

Terrible policies and repression by the ruling regime are in large part responsible for the misery our people live in. Bad policies exist in any country. However, in democratic countries, the people have the right to change their leaders through elections. This is what happens when governments are of the people, by the people and for the people.

Ethiopia is being ruled by an unelected regime that has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people; and obviously does not feel the need to fulfill its obligations as a government. Our inalienable rights to the pursuit of happiness, liberty and prosperity and to live peacefully in our own country are being violated on a daily basis.. Moreover, due to the regime’s ethnocentric policies which continue to threaten the very existence of our nation, most Ethiopians have come to feel that what is at stake is more than citizen’s rights – to be blunt, it is nothing less than the survival of our old and proud nation.

When a government fails miserably to fulfill its obligations to its citizens, it is the right of citizens to rebel against it. Since the regime of Meles Zenawi has shown time and again that it is not willing to relinquish power through elections, most Ethiopians have come to agree that it needs to be ousted by any means necessary. One way is for the military to stage a coup d’etat and remove a government that is dangerous to the national interest of the nation, that it is sworn to protect.

Because no government wants to encourage actions that endanger its survival, external support for such drastic measure is very low. For example, the African Union does not give acknowledgment to governments formed through coup d’etats. We obviously understand why, especially since African dictators are the most exposed to such actions.

However, there are some contemporary arguments that are emerging in favor of coups. An example is Alexander Collier’s recently published, “Wars, Guns and Votes”. In this book, Mr. Collier proposes to the international community to stop using aid as leverage in their dealings with dictators, and instead, considers harnessing coup d’etat. He proposes a scheme in which certain standards are set. Those administrations that sign up to the program and meet those standards will be protected from coups; whereas in the case of those who fail to meet the standards, the international community will look into harnessing a military coup that may take place, instead of condemning it.

The West needs to act on what it already knows about the Meles regime. The Meles regime is bad for Ethiopia and Ethiopians. It is bad for the long-term stability of the Horn of Africa. It is bad for the interests of the West. Therefore, if the West still believes it can benefit from a secure and stable Ethiopia, it needs to figure out ways of harnessing a coup attempt, and not oppose it. Any party that wants to continue a healthy friendship with Ethiopia, in the long run, can benefit from aligning itself with the oppressed people of Ethiopia; with groups that are working to remove the illegal regime of Meles Zenawi and those who are challenging its ethnic apartheid policies as evidenced by the total Tiragna minority domination of the military as well as all economic and political spheres of the country.

As for Ethiopians, in addition to just supporting a coup, we also need to find ways to harness it. We cannot sit back and allow what has repeatedly happened over the last 40 years. We should not allow the possibility of our yearning for freedom and democracy to be hijacked again. The only way to stop that is to get involved and keep our political groups and us accountable to our commitment to democracy. We all need to take ownership of the struggle. Standing on the sidelines and only singing the praises of those in the “eye of the storm” has not been beneficial before; and it will not be in the future.

Each one of us must take charge of our respective journeys towards freedom since Ethiopia belongs to each and every one of us. Citizenship entails responsibilities. Let’s find the courage and the resolve to free our people from the jaws of the brutal TPLF regime and save our Motherland.

(The writter Netsanet Habtu can be reached at [email protected])