Mekbeb Abebe Welde is the spitting image of Ethiopia’s fallen emperor, Haile Selassie. Mr. Abebe has the same pointy chin, down-turned nose and slight build. When he picks up a cup of macchiato and puts
it to his lips, as he did in a local cafe the other day, he does so ever so gracefully, more like a prince than a cabdriver.
But Mr. Abebe, 33, is a cabdriver. He lives a humble life in Ethiopia”s crowded capital, scrounging to survive as so many others here do.
Still, Mr. Abebe”s friends call him “Prince” and bow down when they see him, deference that stems from more than his resemblance to the emperor. Some here think Mr. Abebe really is a son born out of wedlock to the ruler, who claimed blood ties to the biblical King Solomon.
The monarchy was wiped out in this country in 1975, after the emperor died at age 83, but everyone knows the emperor”s official kin. Mr. Abebe, on the other hand, exists in a netherworld, gossiped about, pointed at and subjected at times to angry diatribes about the emperor”s misrule but not accepted by the emperor”s acknowledged flesh and blood.
Mr. Abebe has petitioned the royal family to recognize him, to no avail. No one seems interested in his offer to undergo a DNA test.
Even if he were welcomed into the family, he would not necessarily win great treasure. The emperor”s relatives live well, but most of their vast holdings were long ago seized by the state. He might enjoy prestige among devotees of the emperor, but he would have to suffer scorn from the emperor”s many detractors. Mr. Abebe says it is acceptance by blood relations that motivates him, not treasure or acclaim.
Still, it would not be so bad to be able to travel the world, as the emperor”s acknowledged relatives do. Mr. Abebe could perhaps go off to some “big name” university to get an education. He might get a big gated home to replace his modest dwelling. As the emperor”s son, he could walk into the Sheraton Addis, where the cost of a glass of orange juice exceeds many Ethiopians” daily wage, and afford to quench his thirst.
It is family lore more than anything else that Mr. Abebe offers as evidence of his blood ties. His mother, Almaz Tadesse Goshu, was one of the emperor”s many servants. They supposedly had a liaison late in the emperor”s tenure, long after his wife had died.
Mr. Abebe says his mother”s husband divorced her when he learned the child she was carrying was the emperor”s. She died when Mekbeb was 7; he was taken in by a general who had been close to the emperor.
During his one face-to-face encounter with one of the emperor”s granddaughters, Mr. Abebe said he disclosed his mother”s affair with Selassie. “She said a lot of people show up and say they are sons,” he recalled. “She said there was nothing she could do to help me.”
One of the few aides to Selassie still around, an elderly butler who works in a palace-turned-museum at Addis Ababa University, seemed stunned when he met Mr. Abebe. With an emotional look, he bowed and shook Mr. Abebe”s hand.
But he said only, “The past is the past.” Mr. Abebe seemed to take the encounter as an encouraging sign.
The question of blood ties aside, Mr. Abebe has read a great deal about the emperor, who ruled from 1930 until the military ousted him in 1974, and was killed the following year in the basement of one of his palaces and buried like the commonest of men.
Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam took over as head of the new Communist government. He ordered the executions of dozens of members of the royal family and of ministers and generals who served the emperor.
Under Mr. Mengistu”s rule, students were taught to despise Selassie. He was a feudal lord, a selfish fool, a tyrant responsible for Ethiopia”s woes, they were told.
But Mr. Mengistu”s government, too, eventually collapsed. Rebels chased him from the country in 1991 and set up the government that exists today, led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Mr. Zenawi”s government is not fond of Selassie either, once labeling him “a tyrant and oppressor of the masses.”
It is understandable that Ethiopians are somewhat divided on his legacy. Some dismiss him as a deluded leader who spent national wealth on shrines to himself. Others praise him for the hospitals he built, the palace that he turned into the country”s main university and his work at bringing the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, to Addis Ababa.
“His image has slowly been recovering,” said Elizabeth W. Giorgis, acting director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. “He”s not known as just a tyrant anymore. Most of the criticism of him is true, but he had another side to him.”
It took until 2000 for the emperor”s remains to be transferred from a temporary crypt to Holy Trinity Cathedral, placed beside his wife”s in a grand ceremony attended by thousands of wailing Ethiopians. Mr. Abebe was in the crowd that day.
Mr. Abebe said he was also on hand in 2003 when thousands gathered at the same church to lay to rest “Princess” Tenagne Worq, who was described as the last surviving child of the emperor. Mr. Abebe said he knew better.
The opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), the umbrella organization of four multinational opposition parties, has proposed sweeping changes to the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) as one element of its election platform in the Election Manifesto it released on Wednesday April 6, 2005.
The proposed changes are said to have been made with the view to making the constitution more friendly to human and democratic rights, curbing the powers of the executive and ensuring the independence of the judiciary.
The coalition, which is composed of the All Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP), the Ethiopians Democratic Union Party-Medhin (EDUP-Medhin), the Ethiopian Democratic League (EDL) and Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Social Justice and Democracy (Rainbow), has proposed an extensive list of amendments to make in the current constitution, including the most obvious one to Article 39 which provides for the rights of peoples, nations and nationalities, including and up to secession.
CUD’s Election Manifesto says that the way these rights are provided for in the present constitution fails to take into account and balance the multitude desires, interests and views of the Ethiopian people.
“Therefore,” says the manifesto, “it will be amended in a way that will ensure the rights of citizens both in their individual and collective capacity to self-determination with the view of making it consonant with the desires not only of those who want to secede but also those who want to stay together.”
The coalition intends to modify the regional administrative arrangement that is being followed by the present government and which has subsequently been enshrined in the constitution as well. According to the manifesto, the basis for these modifications would be the observance of the wishes, interests and desires of the people. The criteria, thus, would be the wishes of the people, the strength or otherwise of historical and cultural commonalties, language, settlement patterns and geography, etc.
The manifesto also makes clear that the leaders of the coalition will definitely go on to scrap the constitutional provision that makes land, both urban and rural, the property of the state as they have promised repeatedly to do.
CUD’s proposals also include changing the voting system to proportional representation, stripping the power to interpret the constitution off the House of the Federation, limiting the tenures of the prime minister to two terms, amending the various constitutional stipulations to ensure the independence of the judiciary, and so on. CUD also promised the scrapping of laws proclaimed in violation of the supremacy of the constitution (Article 9).
The coalition’s Election Manifesto deals also extensively with the various reform programmes in the social, economic, political and other spheres.
ADDIS ABABA (Xinhuanet) — The Ethiopian Ministry of Information said Friday all parties are expected to accept the final outcome of the May 15 national elections, since the contending parties had ample opportunities to provide adequate information to the electorate.
In a weekly statement from the ministry, it said election campaigns in other countries last a month or two.
“From this perspective, the fact that the commencement of policy and program debates and their live transmissions in our country started in September, 2004, is of profound importance to ensure that the electorate is well informed and knowledgeable,” said the statement.
“What is left, after all, is the readiness to accept the final ruling of the electorate which has the right to empower or not.
It called on the contending political parties to exert maximum effort to improve the air time usage so as to benefit themselves and enlighten the public in the remaining time until the voting day.
The contending political parties have 487 hours air time to promote their policies and programs through radio and TV transmission. Not all political parties are making use of optimum use of the air time at their disposal, said the ministry.
Over 25.6 million Ethiopians are eligible to cast ballots in the upcoming elections to elect a national parliament and eight regional assemblies. The newly elected federal lawmakers will thenselect a prime minister.
There are 1,845 candidates representing 36 political parties and independents running for the 480 seats up for grabs in the 547-member federal parliament.
The remaining 67 MPs, who represent Ethiopia’s eastern Somalia Regional State, will be chosen in elections in August.
The national elections will be only the third democratic ballotin Ethiopia. The previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling party.
Ethiopia has a two-house parliament: the 110-seat upper House of the Federation and the 547-seat lower House of People’s Representatives.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council Friday released a report accusing local government and election officials of harassing members and supporters of opposition parties ahead of next month’s general elections.
The head of investigation at the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, Birhanu Tsigu, tells VOA his group has documented what he calls “election abuses and irregularities,” which he says were committed mostly by low-level government officials operating in local communities.
“Most of these abuses have been committed against members, candidates and supporters of the opposition parties,” he said. “The kinds of violations range from extra-judicial killings, unlawful imprisonments, beatings and eviction from land, and different sorts of abuses. Most of the abuses have been investigated by our investigators who have been deployed to the sites of these violations, and we do have first-hand information, first-hand evidence, on all of these incidents reported.”
The most serious incident described in Friday’s report occurred in January in the Amhara region, where, Mr. Tsigu says, two people were killed and six others injured by local government officials. Mr. Tsigu says the victims were members of an opposition party and were deliberately targeted.
Mr. Tsigu says irregularities by election officials include the granting of several voting cards to one voter. Eech person is only supposed to get one card.
Election officials, he says, have also arbitrarily forced independent candidates to change their election symbols and signs well into their campaigns.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council has released several reports within the last few months documenting abuse.
“Our wish is that the election board, as well as others responsible government offices, will closely read these reports, and make the necessary corrections until the election day arrives, so that the election may turn out to be a free and fair election for the betterment of the country and the life of its people,” he added.
Government Spokesman Zemedkun Tekle disputes the findings of the Human Rights Council. He tells VOA, his government is committed to holding free, fair and democratic elections.
“So, everything is moving very smoothly,” he said. “However, you can hear that [criticism] from those organizations, such as the human rights organization, saying this and that. However, the reality on the ground is, any branch of the government has been told to make its best effort to be sure [of] democratic and fair and free election.”
Ethiopia’s elections are scheduled for May 15. Although about 70 opposition parties are registered with the National Election Board of Ethiopia, two in particular — the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the Union of Ethiopian Democratic Forces — are the main contenders.
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley teamed up yesterday to send a shipment of computers, school supplies and children’s chairs to a new youth center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
After addressing a gathering of Ethiopian community leaders at the John A. Wilson Building in the District, the Democratic mayors led a procession of officials outside carrying a few final items to a loaded shipment container that included Post-it Notes, soccer shoes and boxes of felt-tip pens.
Free E-mail Newsletters
Hermela Kebede, executive director of the Ethiopian Community Center on Georgia Avenue NW, said 4 million youths in Addis Ababa have been orphaned by war and HIV-AIDS. “It is very important to have a youth center in Addis Ababa,” she said. “I’m sure they will be very happy to receive these things.”
The youth center is one of six operated in war-torn cities in Africa, the West Bank and Afghanistan by the Glocal Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to linking cities to promote peace and economic development. Williams and O’Malley are active in the group. In February, Williams traveled to Baltimore to join O’Malley in sending a shipment of supplies to another youth center in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Excessive transport cost is currently challenging Ethiopia, a landlocked country, and is weakening its competitiveness in the world market, UN said Wednesday.
After the loss of Assab Port ten years ago, transportation is costing Ethiopia a lot of money, it said.
Anwarul K Chowdhury, UN Under-Secretary-General told journalists that geographical constraints faced by landlocked developing countries continue to be a major constraint on their development.
“It is increasingly recognized that excessive transport costs do more damage to trade than tariffs. Half of the world’s 31 landlocked developing countries are in Africa. They are currently facing a major problem from transport costs than the payment of tariffs,” he said
Chowdhury who is also a high representative for the least developed countries said that transit transport cooperation is crucial in Africa to tackle this problem.
“UN has been undertaking efforts to implement the Almaty Program of Action for transit transport cooperation, which was adopted in 2003 at the UN conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan,” he said, adding, “the recently launched UN Millennium project report stressed that the MDG-based strategies for landlocked developing countries should be based on the implementation of the Almaty Program of Action.”
The envoy also indicated that Africa’s success or failure in trade would largely be determined by transport availability and cost.
According to him, landlocked countries, particularly in developing world experience tariffs up to four times higher than other countries.
“Their situation is further aggravated because of the inadequate infrastructure development and costly and inefficient border crossing and other procedures in their transit neighbours most of which are too poor to develop their transit system without major infusion of external assistance,” he added.
National priority for the transport sector by African countries, total debt conciliation, increasing Official Development Assistance (ODA) and opportunities for the world market are among others, which were stated as ways to tackle the problem.
Ten of the 15 landlocked countries in Africa, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic Chad, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and Uganda, spend up to 40 percent of their export earning for transportation and insurance services.
World Bank on its part has expressed its commitment to scale up transport development aid in the coming years.
But Mr. Abebe, 33, is a cabdriver. He lives a humble life in Ethiopia”s crowded capital, scrounging to survive as so many others here do.