When Ethiopia’s rebel-turned-leader Meles Zenawi emerged from the bush to take power in 1991, he sat for a long-distance learning degree to feel more qualified to run Africa’s second most populous nation.
Despite studying while running a vast country of 80 ethnicities emerging from 17 years of communist rule, Meles came a remarkable third in his graduating class.
Some Ethiopians say he has gone on learning ever since and consider him the sharpest of Africa’s leaders. But for others, he is a prime minister who never learned to rule effectively, failed to deliver full democracy and trampled people’s rights.
Now, the 54-year-old leader regularly says he wants to quit, with the blessing of his ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party.
With the party due to discuss that at a meeting of its executive committee next month, and the next EPRDF congress scheduled for September, 18 years of often tough political learning for Meles may be nearing the final chapter.
A change could, however, be delayed until after 2010 elections, analysts say, and successors would come from senior government figures likely to continue Meles’ economic policies, rather than from a weakened opposition.
“I think he genuinely feels the time is right to step down and let someone else guide the country to full democracy,” an EPRDF insider said. “He is thinking about his legacy and I think he realises he personally has taken things as far as he can.”
Analysts, diplomats and Ethiopian politicians disagree about what that legacy will be, and how an Ethiopia without the internationally high-profile Meles at the helm might look.
WESTERN TIES
The Meles government has cultivated good relations with the West, introduced a safety-net system for millions of hungry people which should ensure the ruinous famine of 1984/85 is never repeated, and reduced infant mortality and poverty rates in one of the world’s poorest countries.
A new, albeit small, middle class has emerged.
But the 2005 elections, touted as Ethiopia’s first truly democratic poll, ended in brutality when the government declared victory and the opposition said the result was fixed.
Police and soldiers then killed about 200 opposition protesters who had taken to the streets after Meles said they were attempting to topple the government.
Ethiopians go to the polls again in June 2010, and analysts are divided on the question of whether the elections will pass off peacefully and without accusations of rigging.
Rights groups have accused Meles of cracking down on the opposition again. One opposition leader has been jailed and a group of former and serving military officers have been charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
The unrest has come as the Ethiopian economy is suffering the impact of the global recession and analysts question who can replace Meles at such a delicate time.
The country’s economy had been developing at a rate of more than 10 percent in recent years and Meles — who represented Africa at the G20 summit of rich nations — was widely credited with using his economic know-how to achieve that.
Investors interested in agriculture and gas and oil exploration were beginning to move in — many of them from China and India — and commodity exports were growing.
But the country has seen demand for its agricultural exports plummet, inflation soar, and power cuts ravage business and fuel a crippling foreign currency shortage.
Opposition leaders were jailed after Meles blamed them for orchestrating the 2005 violence and have made little impact since their release in a 2007 pardon deal. They say that is because of government harassment but Meles denies that.
WHO NEXT?
“It is unlikely that anyone from the opposition will come to power after Meles,” Kjetil Tronvoll, an Ethiopia expert from the International Law and Policy Group think-tank, told Reuters.
“We will see a transition period with another EPRDF leader, and then a possible withering of EPRDF before a new party constellation may take power down the road.”
Though there has been speculation Meles could leave at the next EPRDF congress in September, most diplomats say a more likely scenario is that he will guide the party to victory in 2010, then seek support for his resignation at its September 2010 national congress.
Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, Health Minister Tewodros Adhanom and Trade Minister Girma Birru are all possible successors, party members told Reuters.
Should Meles step down, analysts and potential investors will closely watch his successor to see whether opposition parties are given more freedom or whether the EPRDF holds on to power in authoritarian fashion.
“There was a bad bump in 2005,” an Addis Ababa-based diplomat, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
“But if Meles can put Ethiopia back on the path towards democratisation in 2010 he’ll leave the country in a better position than he found it.”
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Canada.com) — Got 48 hours to spare in Addis Ababa — Africa’s diplomatic hub and one of the highest capital cities in the world? Reuters correspondents with local knowledge give tips on how to make the most of a short stay.
FRIDAY
5 p.m. Have a couple of cold beers by the pool during happy hour at the Hilton Hotel. You’ll rub shoulders with African Union diplomats, United Nation’s workers and government ministers so the conversation is always controversial and interesting.
8 p.m. Ethiopians serve their food on a spongy pancake called injera. Well-cooked pieces of lamb called tibs are particularly good as are the array of vegetables eaten during fasting times. Hop in a taxi (the blue ones are cheapest and perfectly safe) to Fasika. It’s one of the swankiest restaurants in town but a great place to try the local cuisine for the first time. A lively dance show takes you on a whistle-stop tour of Ethiopian culture.
10 p.m. With a belly full of Ethiopian food, now’s a good time to head to a traditional bar known as an Azmari bet. Try the Kazanchis area and ask your taxi driver for recommendations. Fendika is a good one. Azmaris are the performers who sing songs often made up on the spot. If you’re lucky they might even sing one about you.
SATURDAY
9 a.m. Many visitors to Addis are overwhelmed by the scale of visible poverty and the street children they see on almost every corner. Instead of doling out change randomly, pay a quick visit to Hope Enterprises on Churchill Road and buy some meal tickets. Every day almost 700 children redeem the tickets for a healthy dinner at the center.
9:15 a.m. Now you’re in the right spot to indulge in some souvenir shopping. Shops carrying everything from Ethiopian silver to memorabilia from Ethiopia’s brief Italian occupation line Churchill Road. Take your time to compare prices across a few stores.
11:00 a.m. If the shopping bug has bitten, why not hop in a taxi to the Mercato? Some say it’s Africa’s biggest open-air market but nobody really knows. Just watch your pockets. But don’t worry too much. Addis is one of Africa’s safest capitals and crime is rare.
1 p.m. After a trip to London at the turn of the 20th century, Princess Taitu asked her husband Emperor Menelik II to build a hotel like the ones she had seen there. The Itegue Taitu Hotel was the result and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Addis. Go for a bite and ask to be served outside the upstairs bedrooms in the main building.
3 p.m. Time for coffee. And you’re in the best place in the world for that. Legend has it the coffee bean was discovered centuries ago by a shepherd in northern Ethiopia and Ethiopians take their coffee very seriously indeed. Tamoca on Algeria Street is the oldest coffee shop in town and serves a great macchiato (espresso with milk). Coffee beans roast in front of your eyes in stylish Italian art-deco surroundings. They’re for sale too.
5 p.m. English Premier League football obsesses Africans. And Meskel Square — where all Addis roads meet — is a truly unique place to witness their passion. A giant screen illuminates the west end of the square and hundreds of Addis Ababans regularly congregate in the square to cheer on their teams. Arsenal is by far the most popular.
8 p.m. Said to be Bob Geldof’s favorite Italian restaurant, Castelli’s elegant wood-panelled dining room has played host to Swedish royalty, Bill Clinton, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Consistency is the seller – the restaurant has served up its tasty selection of pastas, seafood and steaks through all manner of strife. It famously stayed open the night Ethiopia’s communist regime was toppled in 1991. The antipasti buffet is a must.
11 p.m. If you fancy late drinks, you could start at the Sheraton Hotel’s Gaslight and watch the city’s rich at play. Then across town to Memo’s nightclub for a recharging snack in its courtyard restaurant (order the chirro), before a dance with the less spoiled locals and a smattering of expats. Or you could head to Le Bateau Ivre in Kazanchis — one of the most reliably raucous and fun late, late bars in town.
SUNDAY
9 a.m. – The best thing about the wonderful Ethnological Museum/Haile Selassie’s Palace on Algeria Street is that you get to see the real former bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms of the famously regal and elegant Emperor Haile Selassie and his wife.
12 p.m. A leisurely lunch at Blue Tops across the road. You have to try the ice cream.
3 p.m. The Derg Monument on Churchill Avenue is a surprisingly haunting reminder of Ethiopia’s difficult years of communist rule. The site also houses a moving pictorial memorial to Cuban soldiers who died fighting alongside Ethiopian troops during the country’s war against Somalia in 1977/78.
6 p.m. Watch the sun set over your Addis weekend at the fine Top View restaurant.
A Baltimore County judge has dismissed a $4.3 million lawsuit filed by more than 100 former members of an Ethiopian church against its board of trustees after the plaintiffs failed to respond to discovery requests.
The trial involving Ethiopian Evangelical Church was scheduled for Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. But Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. dismissed the case Friday at the request of the defendants’ lawyer.
“There are 116 unidentified plaintiffs in this case,” Erika E. Cole wrote. “In order to be prepared for trial, the defendants must determine who is suing them and on what basis.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Matthew W. Hurd, of Hartel, Kane, DeSantis, MacDonald & Howie LLP in Beltsville, could not be reached for comment.
The suit, filed last year, alleged the Liberty Road church’s seven-member board of trustees changed the status of the church’s religious corporation from a nonprofit to a religious entity in January 2008, giving themselves more power, without consulting the congregation. The board fired Pastor Daniel Berhanu soon after that, the lawsuit said.
The board countered that the change was lawful and that the pastor’s firing was purely a religious matter, not subject to government intervention.
Berhanu and other ex-church members have moved to another congregation, according to court documents. Ethiopian Evangelical remains open and will celebrate the case’s conclusion during services Sunday, said Cole, an Owings Mills solo practitioner.
“The church continued to do the work of the ministry rather than suspend it during litigation,” she said.
optical amplifier(Examiner.com) — Washington-based Girls Gotta Run is already supporting Ethiopian girls training to be professional runners.
Now, the Chevy Chase volunteer-run nonprofit is supporting the work of an Occidental College student named Kayla Nolan who is spending the summer in Ethiopia researching the benefits Ethiopian girls and women can reap from running. Like those involved with Girls Gotta Run, Nolan believes involvement in the sport can empower Ethiopian girls and women, offering them paths out of poverty and teenage childbirth to education and independence. Girls Gotta Run helped Nolan write a proposal that netted her a research fellowship from Occidental College, which is fully funding the trip.
As part of her research, Nolan is visiting and getting to know members of the four teams Girls Gotta Run provides support for. Best of all, she’s blogging about her experience here.
Girls Gotta Run has raised more than $24,000 in the past two years to buy shoes, training clothes, food and other training essentials for Ethiopian girls training to become professional runners. Among its fund-raising events is an immensely popular art exhibit in the Washington area for which local artists design and sell artwork related to shoes, running and motion.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Crops in large swathes of Ethiopia risk being destroyed by swarms of locusts coming from northern Somalia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) “reports that locust swarms have been confirmed in seven regions in the country, including in areas where there is no previous record of infestation,” a statement said.
“The government is expected to present a response plan specifying immediate and medium-term actions to be taken during the week,” OCHA said.
It added that 1,390 hectares of land in several regions, mainly in southeastern Ethiopia had been sprayed in ground and air operations.
The vast majority of Ethiopia’s 77 million inhabitants depend on subsistence agriculture and have been badly hit by successive infestations of voracious locusts that destroy every plant in their path.
(CNN) — Somalia’s transitional government has the right to request military help from its neighbors against armed militants, the African Union said Monday, but Kenya was quick to reject the idea of sending troops and suggested the AU should spearhead such a move.
Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Madowe on Saturday called on Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen to send in their military forces to help government troops stop hardline Islamist militants from taking over.
“Militants are wrestling the power from the government and so we call for military help from neighboring countries,” the speaker said at a news conference in Mogadishu. “Please send your military to help in 24 hours’ time.”
But Alfred Mutua, spokesman for the Kenyan government, told CNN that “Kenya doesn’t engage in military support to our neighbors.” He said that any such support would be under the umbrella of the African Union.
However, he did say that “different types of support can be given, not just military, and Kenya’s options are open.” He said that the government should announce by Wednesday how it will move forward.
Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said in a communique issued Sunday that the transitional government, as Somalia’s legitimate government, “has the right to seek support from AU Member States and the larger international community.”
Ping also said that the AU would “continue to do its utmost to assist the Somali people and its authorities in their lasting quest for peace and reconciliation.”
Somalia’s call for help came hours after a third top politician was killed in ongoing fighting in the capital.
Mohamed Hussein Adow, a powerful member of parliament who was leading the fight against the Islamists, was slain Friday in the north of the city.
His death came two days after Islamists killed Internal Security Minister Omar Hashi Adan in a suicide attack in central Somalia. The nation’s former ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah Laqanyo, was also killed, along with at least 11 others, government officials said.
Madowe said a Pakistani militant who is a high-ranking official in al Qaeda is leading the fighting in Somalia against the government.
He warned that militants will spread fighting into the rest of the region if they topple the government in Somalia.
