Our new name is the Ethiopians in the Diaspora. ‘The term Diaspora (in Greek διασπορά – “a scattering [of seeds]”) refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnic identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far remote from the former.’ I really don’t like it. We used to be immigrants. I have no idea when we became the Diaspora.
I don’t like both terms. They have finality about them. It means that wherever we are, we intend to settle permanently. I would rather think of myself as a refugee. A refugee is some one in transit. I like that. Isn’t that what we are? We have scattered to all four corners of the world because we are seeking shelter from danger. We escape from our country because it is not safe. Some are political refuges. They left to avoid persecution. A lot are economic refuges. They are running away from slow death. Our country offers its population such choice as physical death due to starvation, mental and spiritual death due to forced ignorance.
Sometimes good can come out of a bad situation. This refuge business is one such instance. Our ancient country is always looking after us. It gave us a solid foundation to withstand the shock of settling in strange far away places. We were mentally fortified. Every nationality thinks they are unique. We don’t only think we are unique, we believe it. It is like Ethiopia said to each one of us ‘if you have to go, go but don’t forget who you are and please return.’
Where ever we have settled we have thrived. We seek each other. We congregate. All you got to do is find one of us. It is like opening a floodgate. You find one you find them all.
This has been a week of graduation in our area. A proud moment for a lot of families. A celebration of achievement. Sons and daughters of refugees feeling good about them selves and making their family proud. There is nothing like being free to excel.
So how did these offspring’s of destitute refugees get to attend some of the best institutions in this great land? It is simple. It is so because those refugee parents had to learn fast and adapt to the new situation. Most arrive with just their shirts on their back. They work hard. They work long. They study with passion. They aim high. They succeed like no other.
When one is far away from home and there is no one to lean on one learns fast. We learn to think beyond today. We plan and project far into the future. We become masters of our own success or failure. We stop being crybabies and assume responsibility for our actions.
We learn that there is no free lunch, no reward without effort, and no easy short cuts in life and if we are lucky we learn to be empathic to our fellow humans.
I, as a bona fide refugee and graduate of the ‘hard knock’ school of life I was highly disconcerted when I heard what the Ethiopian Prime Minster said to a Mr. Jason McClure of Bloomberg News. I don’t know how Mr. McClure took the news but I was forced to say ‘come again?’ Believe me I have made up a lot of excuses for my actions and I have heard some bizarre ones too but this one takes the gold. No question about it. Talk about chutzpah!
Ato Meles blames ‘the World Bank and international donors’ for the scarcity of Electricity in Ethiopia. Mr. Mc Lure wrote:
The World Bank underestimated electricity demand in previous years and failed to provide funding for new power-generation projects the government had wanted, leading to under-investment in the industry, he said.
“We could have avoided that mistake if we had the money or had we had the support of our donors,” Meles said.
I believe most of us were under the impression that Ato Meles and his TPLF politburo are in charge of Ethiopia. At what point did World Bank enter the picture? What else are they running besides Electric power? I want to know if the Somali invasion was their idea? Did they force Ato Meles to declare ‘state of emergency’ after the 2005 elections and gave the order to shoot to kill? Was that the World Bank that forced Ato Meles to arrest Judge Bertukan too? Frankly I never trusted the World Bank and Ato Meles is confirming my worst fears.
That ‘gotcha’ moment was short lived. It looks like the reporter talked to a Mr. Kenichi Ohashi, the World Bank’s director for Ethiopia. Well apparently Ato Meles did not clear his story with Mr. Ohashi, and Mr. Ohashi is not amused. This is what he has to say about it:
“The notion that because we didn’t finance power they have a problem, that’s bogus,” Kenichi Ohashi, the World Bank’s director for Ethiopia, said by phone today. “If we financed power that would come at the expense of something else”
Interesting. I don’t know what the choices were but it must have been difficult for outsiders to make decisions for a nation they have neither kinship nor strong bond. You can say the same about Ato Meles but today we are not going there. So where is the sovereignty Berket is always babbling about? Now since we all know who is running Electric power you know where to forward your complaints.
There is more. TPLF is the gift that keeps giving.
Power cuts might also have been alleviated if the Washington-based multilateral lender had provided funding for a 60-megawatt diesel generator the government requested this year, Meles said.
A lousy 60-megawatt diesel generator just to hold us over until the July rains and they said no! Those heartless bastards what do they care. Bankers are cold. They are willing to destroy the economic well being of a nation. Hold on that is not the story Mr. Ohashi is telling.
The World Bank didn’t finance the generator because the government’s contracting process didn’t meet World Bank standards and wasn’t “open and transparent and competitive,” Ohashi said.
Now I see it. The Bank wants ‘open and transparent’ process and EFFORT had already won the contract. Ato Meles was just asking for the cash and the Bank has the audacity to say no. May be the Bank thought diesel is not such a good idea considering the shortage of dollars to buy fuel. I get the feeling that Ato Meles leaves a lot out when telling a story. I have no idea if he forgets or it is pathological. What is certain is that he is not telling the truth. In other words he is lying. Simple.
So when Mr. Ohashi’s outfit said ‘No” to the loan what did Ato Meles’s government do to mitigate the effects of the certainty of power shortage? You just don’t fold your hands and sit. I guess you can. They did not even ask their Abuna to urge the people to pray for rain.
This is the difference between the Diaspora (refugees) and TPLF. We have learned to take responsibility for our actions. We don’t shift blame nor do we cry in public. We avoid welfare and work double shift to meet our obligations. Just try telling your mortgage holder that you can’t pay your note since the bank did not give you the loan subsidy. Your sad ass will be out on the street in a New York minute.
There seems to be a lot of speculation with what the Prime Minster might do or not do regarding his future plans. He speaks in hyperboles and wants to sound mysterious. Listen to this:
“My guess is this is going to boil-down to plus or minus a year or two,” he said. “I’m simply thinking aloud. Now if it were to boil-down to plus or minus a year or two, I would probably say this is not a matter on which I ought to leave the party.” It’s also possible, “some would say very likely” that he will be succeeded as prime minister by a person from outside the Tigrayan ethnic group, Meles said.
I dare you to make sense of that. What does plus or minus a year mean? Boil down? Why he speaks in clichés is foreign to me. Here in the US politicians start running the day they are elected. It is a 24/7 job. You don’t hide in gated community surrounded by armed solders. If they want to be elected they mingle with their constituents. Not the supreme leader. He still thinks in ethnic terms. The notion some one capable without the ethnic baggage is foreign to him. It is possible the TPLF folks can sign petitions to force him to be Prime Minister again. May be he is being coy with us so we can start a nation wide campaign to crown him as Yohanes V. Anything is possible in Ethiopia. As I said we are very resourceful people.
What he said regarding Judge Bertukan is very mean. A head of state does not make a statement like that regarding the leader of the biggest opposition Party in the country. This is what he said:
Meles said there is “zero” chance that opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa will be released from prison in time to compete in the elections scheduled for next May. He also said Birtukan’s jailing is not a pretext to eliminate political opposition.
Judge Bertukan has been in jail one hundred seventy six days. That is five months and twenty-six days. She has been in solitary confinement. She is not allowed visitors except her daughter Hale who is four years old and her mother Weizero Almaz who is seventy-two years old. She is not allowed to see her lawyer, listen to the radio or visit by the Red Cross. Complete isolation in a dark cold room is torture. Ato Meles said the chances are zero that she will be released. On the other hand the chances are 100% that Ato Meles will be tried for torture, genocide and crime against humanity both by the Ethiopian people and the International Criminal Court. We will be the first ones to defend Ato Meles’s and his fellow criminals right for a fair and speedy trial. We will not tolerate torture and the prisoners will be allowed to hire even foreign lawyers but not with our money. The sight of Ato Meles and friends in a pink prison garb will be priceless. Just picture it my friends.
It looks like the situation in Iran further complicates Ato Meles’s grip on power. It is obvious that there will be no repeat of 2005. The world is watching. Europeans will follow the US lead. President Obama’s administration is allergic to state sponsored killing. The Diaspora Ethiopians are loud and everywhere. The ‘Eight’ points by Kinijit are still the minimum demands. No party in Ethiopia will be accepted as legitimate contender with out the eight points being fulfilled. There is no such thing as a free election without a free press and the opposition’s right to free assembly and organization is respected.
Remittances from the Diaspora has dried up, commodity prices are plunging, inflation is spiraling, devaluation is over due, Ana Gomez, Donald Payne, Russ Feingold, Berhanu Nega are circling over head, what are you going to do? You definitely are not going to Disney land. I urge my hero Shambel to sing ‘Express train to Kaliti’
Inside the Torture Chambers of the Dictatorship in Ethiopia
Last week, Barry Malone of the Reuters news agency reported that families of the suspects allegedly involved in a “terror network” against the dictatorship in Ethiopia told him that some of their loved ones had “been tortured and are injured. They have been interrogated for up to nineteen hours. One man with injuries to his penis had to be treated in hospital.” Voice of America’s Peter Heinlien further reported:
At a pre-trial hearing, attorneys and defendants in the so-called ‘Ginbot Seven’ case indicated the accused had suffered physical and psychological abuse while being held in pre-trial detention. Former army General Asamenew Tsige, one of five leaders of an alleged coup plot being held in solitary confinement, pleaded for special human rights protection. An attorney for another defendant, businessman Getu Worku, asked that her client be allowed to see a private doctor for injuries suffered in detention. Both requests were denied.
The dictatorship’s servile prosecutor and master of doublespeak, Shimeles Kemal, said: “They have the right to relate any indignities they allege they have suffered openly in court. If this had been the case [tortured], they would have [reported it in court], but they didn’t.” In other words, General Asamenew Tsige’s “court” request for “special human rights protection” and the request by Ato Getu’s lawyer for an independent medical examination “for injuries suffered in detention” do not “relate to any indignities the suspects have suffered” while in custody.
It was also reported that less than two weeks ago, Birtukan Mideksa, leader of the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, apparently confronted her prison guards after being kept for six harrowing months in solitary confinement. According to the report, she was manhandled by the prison guards until paramedics were called by the warden of Kality prison. Birtukan was given some sort of sedative by the paramedics to render her motionless and speechless. It appears she was temporarily transferred to a cell with two other female inmates following this incident.
None of the “Tales From the Torture Chambers” of the dictatorship in Ethiopia comes as a surprise to anyone who has followed events there over the past few years. The torture chambers are veritable dungeons of horror and terror as documented in the February, 2009 U.S. State Department human rights report on Ethiopia:
Although the constitution and law prohibit the use of torture and mistreatment, there were numerous credible reports that security officials tortured, beat, or mistreated detainees. Opposition political party leaders reported frequent and systematic abuse and intimidation of their supporters by police and regional militias, particularly in the months leading up to the local and by-elections held during the year. In Makelawi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa, police investigators reportedly commonly used physical abuse to extract confessions. Innocent people are tortured for any reason.
In April 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle made the following conclusion following its private investigation: “Interviews with dozens of people across the country, coupled with testimony given to diplomats and human rights groups, paint a picture of a nation that jails its citizens without reason or trial, and tortures many of them — despite government claims to the contrary.” Bereket Simon, the Svengalian player in the capo dictator’s inner circle, responded to the Chronicle investigation by issuing a blanket denial: “No way. No way. No way. I think you know, these are prohibited by laws, by Ethiopian laws — torture, any human treatments… In fact, we have been improving on our prison standards. We’ve been working hard to train the police forces, the interrogators.”
The Law Against Torture and the Prohibition Against Inhuman Treatment
Torture is illegal! Torture is illegal!
Article 1 of the Declaration Against Torture (1975) defines torture as:
… any act by which severe pain and suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by, or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession; punishing him for an act he has committed; or intimidating him or other persons…. Torture constitutes an aggravated and deliberate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Article 18 of the dictatorship’s constitution embraces the Declaration Against Torture by guaranteeing that “Everyone shall have the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Articles 14 and 16 provide a double guarantee by securing “the inalienable and inviolable right to life, liberty and security of person.” Article 21 provides prisoners special protections against torture: “Any person in custody or a convicted prisoner shall have the right to humane treatment which accords with his human dignity. Any person in custody or a convicted prisoner shall have the right to communicate with and be visited by spouse(s), close relatives and friends, medical attendants, religious and legal counselors.”
Under Article 13 of the dictatorship’s constitution, the “fundamental rights and freedoms enumerated… shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR], international human rights covenants and conventions ratified by Ethiopia.” Article 5 of the UDHR and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (both ratified by Ethiopia) are incorporated verbatim in Article 18 of the dictatorship’s constitution (“Everyone shall have the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”). The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984) (ratified by Ethiopia in 1994) requires signatories to take effective measures to prevent torture within their borders. Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court include torture as a crime against humanity and a war crime. Many other declarations, conventions and resolutions prohibit and condemn torture in its entirety, and some specifically require official designation of detention centers, registration of the identities of detainees, service of notice of detention to detainee families and records of the times and places of all interrogations.
Torture, Inc. (Ethiopia): The Business of Torture in the Dictatorship’s Prisons
There are a few irrefutable facts on the question of official torture in Ethiopia that need to be stated for the record:
1) The business of torture in Ethiopia is second only to the business of corruption. Torture, arbitrary arrests, detentions without charges or trials, threats, intimidations and extrajudicial killings are the tools of trade of the dictators’ political enterprise and survival.
2) The ruling dictatorship is openly scornful of international human rights covenants and the prohibitions of its own constitution on the practice of torture. To the dictatorship, these legal instruments and prohibitions are not worth the paper they are written on.
3) Torture raises absolutely no moral questions to the depraved dictators. Simply stated, they do not believe torture of a human being is inherently evil and wrong, and unjustified under any circumstances. In their perverted moral universe, they believe torture is an absolutely necessary tool to maintain themselves in power.
4) The dictatorship could not care less whether the court of world opinion, the International Court of Justice, human rights organizations, countries or anyone else condemns them for practicing torture because they believe fundamentally that they will never be held accountable for their criminal acts.
Having established the foregoing irrefutable facts, we can turn to the central question: Why do the dictators choose to inflict planned and calculated physical and mental pain on their opponents and others they perceive as threats to their power? To answer this question is to understand the dynamics of the internal operation of the dictatorship.
Several reasons can be given. First, the dictators operate in their own echo chamber of intrigue. They talk to themselves and reinforce each other’s fears and paranoia. Looking out through the dark glass of their echo chamber, they see a world inhabited by enemies and adversaries fully engaged in a Grand Conspiracy to uproot them from power. Inside the echo chamber, the dictators live each day in a state of terminal paranoia, re-creating new fantasies of a conspiracy concocted to destroy their chokehold on power. They internalize the massive dissatisfaction of the people with their misrule, the intense popular dislike directed against them and criticisms of their illegitimacy and incompetence, which in turn fuels their illusion of a Grand Conspiracy. They refuse to accept the simple truth that ordinary citizens individually or collectively could on their own (without a grand conspiracy) volition be motivated to reject them and their style of leadership after nearly two decades of tyrannical rule. The fact of total rejection by the society keeps them awake at night. The fact that they are disliked intensely and despised ubiquitously drives them crazy; and they just can’t handle the truth locked in their echo chamber!
The systematic practice of torture becomes their way of lashing out at the individuals they perceive to be the causes of this societal rejection and never-ending resurgence of an illusionary Grand Conspiracy. They justify their actions against their victims by invoking “higher ideals”. Their opponents become “desperado terrorists”, criminals who act “against the constitutional order,” subversives “against the interests of the nation” and defiant deniers of pardon. They convince themselves and try to convince others that those who oppose them are “evil” and they are “good’. They create a rigidly defined world of “them” and “us” and seek to demonize and dehumanize their opponents and critics. They make special laws to punish their imaginary enemies — independent journalists, civic society institutions, opposition political party leaders and members — and to demonstrate to the international community that any actions they take, including torture, is legal.
Second, the torture of the “desperado terrorists” is really not motivated by any fear of what the “desperadoes” could do to overthrow them or “wreak havoc” in the country. It has everything to do with sending a message to the “masterminds” outside of the country, and discouraging opponents, dissidents and others considered threats from further political activity within the country. It should be understood that the dictators’ use of torture against the “desperadoes” has little to do with criminal investigation or information gathering. The dictators know that there is little information that can be obtained from the “desperadoes” through physical beatings and severe psychological trauma. As they have publicly conceded, the whole “conspiracy” is directed by “masterminds” from the outside. There is little reliable or useful information the “desperado” detainees can provide through torture about the outside “masterminds”. In any case, any information they may acquire from the “desperadoes” by torturing them is unlikely to produce useful information because the whole “conspiracy” theory is a fabrication of the dictators themselves. No reasonable person could believe an 80-year old grandfather could lead a “terrorist network”. The bizarre official tale of a gallery of “desperadoes”, “terrorists,” “disgruntled” military officers, shadowy assassins and “dangerous” international “masterminds” who manipulated them all by remote control from the United States and Europe is so goofy that it deserves serialization in Marvel’s comic books.
But there is also a larger message to the population. By torturing the “desperadoes” and hundreds of thousands of other innocent people, the dictators seek to project the illusion of invincibility and omnipotence. Although they are objectively weak, have very little support in the population and are generally confused and inept in handling the enormous social, political and economic problems they have created, they still want to project the illusion that they are totally powerful, strong and unbeatable. Torture serves to enhance this illusion by publicizing the fact that they can eliminate, punish or neutralize their opponents into silence, fear or apathy.
Third, the dictators use torture to break down the will power and self-identity of their victims and bring them into total submission. They will use any means to achieve this purpose, including isolation, humiliation, intense psychological pressure and physical pain. The accumulated evidence from those lucky enough to have escaped the dictators’ torture chambers speak not only of the brutal acts of torture voluminously documented by international human rights organizations (e.g. physical beatings until victim loses consciousness; suspension of victims by feet and hands, face downwards, with chest touching the floor; electric shocks on legs and back; denial of food, water and sleep; beatings with rubber truncheons, tying a large bottle of water around a victim’s testicles; shackling, beatings to coerce the signing of false confessions, etc.) but also of the terror instilled in victims to destroy their identity and sense of self and well-being (e.g. prolonged solitary confinement, ethnic insults and personal humiliation, threats about family and children, forcing victims to view others being tortured and so on).
Fourth, the dictators use a special torture technique against the thousands of their ordinary and “unknown” victims to keep them in a state of complete despair. It is called torture by prolonged detention without charges or trial. Such victims have no idea why they are arrested or jailed. They have no idea if they will ever be charged, brought to trial or released. They have no visitors. They have no means of challenging their detention (even though Art. 19 of the dictators’ constitution provides for a court challenge [habeas corpus] where the “public prosecutor fails to bring the accused to court within the time limit provided by law.” They have no one to defend their rights or publicize their illegal detention. They live in a world of complete hopelessness and helplessness. Their torture has no cut off date. Many fall into a state of deep depression and resort to primitive mechanisms such as splitting (hatred of their torturer and themselves), dissociation (disconnect from their thoughts, memories, feelings, or sense of identity) and introjection (internalize the abusive and negative view of the victim created by the torturer and attributes of their all-powerful torturer). These experiences have been reported by former victims lucky enough to make it out of the dictators’ torture chambers.
Birtukan Mideksa’s Solitary Confinement: A Case Study of Psychological Torture
Although Article 21 of the dictatorship’s constitution guarantees that “Any person in custody or a convicted prisoner shall have the right to communicate with and be visited by spouse(s), close relatives and friends, medical attendants, religious and legal counselors”, Birtukan has spent the past six months in total solitary confinement prison in a “cell measuring 2m square”. She is visited by her mother and child every week for a few minutes. Even when she is allowed her few minutes with her mother, she is supervised and censored by one of the prison cadres. She is allowed only to exchange pleasantries with her mother. All other conversations are strictly prohibited. She is not allowed to visit with her lawyer or other family members, close friends or religious counselors despite two standing “court” orders. According to one report, an official from Kality prison could not explain why Birtukan is in solitary confinement. He stated that solitary confinement is reserved for “dangerous or violent criminals,” which he admitted Birtukan is not. Amnesty International considers Birtukan “at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.”
Sometimes referred to as the “invisible torture” or “torture lite”, solitary confinement (long periods of incommunicado detention) is a sophisticated and subtle form of mental torture that is just as bad as physical torture, as recent empirical studies have shown. In the classic handbook Torture and Its Consequences (1992), the medical, psychiatric and psychological issues of torture victims have been established. Victims held in solitary confinement for all, or nearly all, of the day with minimal environmental stimulation and minimal opportunity for social interaction often suffer severe psychological harm. The psychiatric effects of solitary confinement include perceptual distortions, hallucinations, panic attacks, depression, difficulties with thinking, concentration, and memory, intrusive obsessional thoughts, aggressive ruminations, overt paranoia deteriorating into a state of being spaced out and problems of impulse control. Other effects include insomnia, irritability, restlessness, and attention deficits. Recollections of the traumatic torture events intrude in the form of nightmares, night terrors, flashbacks, and distressing associations long after the torture victim is released from detention.
The sadistic dictators in Ethiopia understand that solitary confinement could be an effective weapon in breaking down Birtukan’s will and destroying her self-identity and effectiveness as a leader. They have learned from decades of practice that by keeping Birtukan in prolonged and painful isolation, they can create the conditions for her to first lose grasp of her identity and sense of self followed by disconnection to reality, her friends and colleagues in the party, the Ethiopian people at large and her supporters throughout the world. Her torturers expect that over a prolonged period of isolation she will lose her raison d’etre (reason for existence) and that she will come to believe that she is all alone in the world and forgotten by the world outside. As her isolation continues, they expect her to disintegrate psychologically – that is, experience a breakdown in her conviction about her very existence and the reality of her external world – and ultimately become her own psychological torturer.
There is a secondary aim in the dictatorship’s use of solitary confinement against Birtukan, (and many others in similar situation including Gen. Asamenew Tsige). Should Birtukan be released in the future, the dictators hope that the harm she suffered through prolonged confinement will be so intense that she will have permanent psychiatric disability, including psychological impairments which will seriously reduce her capacity to lead her party and people and reintegrate into the broader society. The scientific data suggest that victims of prolonged solitary confinement suffer a very high likelihood of cognitive impairment (learning and memory loss), social withdrawal, inability to maintain long-term relationships, phobias, ideas of reference and superstitions, delusions and hallucinations long after they have been set free. To make a long story short: The sole and only reason for torturing Birtukan by solitary confinement is to drive her literally crazy, mad, insane. There is no other reason!
Birtukan and All Ethiopian Political Prisoners and Torture Victims: You are Not Alone!
Official torture is not simply about brutalizing and inflicting massive amounts of physical pain on the victim. It is first and foremost about destroying the inner self of the victim, and the recreation of a shell of a human being that is incapable of thinking or resistance. Torture is about taking fully functioning human beings and making them the living dead. It is also about using the living dead as an example to those living in constant fear and trepidation that resistance to the dictator’s rule is not only futile but also impossible.
The scientific data clearly show that nothing gives torture victims more spiritual, emotional and cognitive energy and power than knowledge of the fact that they are not alone and are not forgotten by their families, friends, compatriots and the outside world. For torture victims, nothing is more important than the thought of knowing that others share their pain and are thinking about them and working on their behalf to set them free. Just this thought alone makes their dehumanizing experience in the vermin-infested torture chambers bearable, and sustain their will to never submit to their torturers.
That is why I ask every freedom-loving, human rights respecting, decent and moral human being to join in the effort to FREE BIRTUKAN AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA!
I look forward to the day soon when Birtukan Mideksa will emerge triumphantly from the dungeon of her solitary confinement in Kality prison and proclaim the magnificent words of Nelson Mandela to the people of Ethiopia:
We have at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender, and other discrimination. Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another… Let freedom reign. God Bless Africa, and Ethiopia!
FREE BIRTUKAN AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA!
The writer, Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. For comments, he can be reached at [email protected]
I am sure you have all heard that Ato Sebhat Nega aka Aboy Sebhat, the Prime Minster’s mentor and a very high official of the ruling TPLF party was a guest on Voice of America. I was very glad. We are always happy when TPLF officials submit to unrehearsed interviews. It seems that it is the only way we get to know them close and personal. I fondly remember Ato Meles’s appearance on Hard Talk with Stephen Sakur in 2005 and Zenib Badawi in 2009. Ato Sebat’s interview is another gem to be savored.
Ato Sebhat was interviewed by Ato Addisu Abebe of VOA Amharic program. Ato Addisu is a consummate professional. He did his job very well. He was not there to prove Ato Sebhat right or wrong. He knows it is up to the listener to make that determination. Like a language surgeon he is, with his soothing voice he lulled his subject into an incredible comfort zone. Then it was a matter of pealing the public fake persona TPLF have constructed for him. Ato Addisu was able to draw Aboy Sebhat out of his skin and reveal the inner self. It was not a pleasant sight. The Sebhat Nega we saw is a very embarrassing figure. Full of hatred, suffering from an inferiority complex, very angry and a pathological liar are the descriptions that come to mind.
I do hope that Aboy Sebhat took some lessons from his experience with VOA. Although his party controls all media outlets and does not allow the airing of ideas different than the ruling party’s here in America it is the responsibility of the press to present different views and let the public be the judge. It has served them very well for over two hundred years. We hope Aboy Sebhat’s outfit Ethiopian Radio and TV will invite leaders of the real opposition and have them explain their vision for their country. The opposition is more than happy to comply.
This was a two-part interview. In this short piece I will concentrate on a few of the ill conceived ideas he was trying to disseminate. I knew it was going to be interesting when I heard his title in the introduction. He is a member of the Ethiopian Parliament, I guess from Tigrai (one never knows since Ato Berket represents Wollo) and President of International Center for Peace and Development. There is no one opposed to peace and development, but this one in Addis it is nothing but. The truth is it is Orwellian double speak at its best. The Center is one of those TPLF created outfits to swindle cash from European Union and Western aid agencies. Ato Sebhat and his organization have never known peace nor developed any enterprise using legal means. As for being elected, I am sure he garnered 99.9 percent of the vote and he did not even have to campaign for it.
He started the interview with a bold lie. There was no need to lie. He can’t help it. His quick motor response is to lie at a drop of a hat. There was no stopping him after that. Blinded by his hatred, emboldened by his false sense of self worth Sebhat Nega was swimming in a cesspool of lies, falsehood and ignorance. We wouldn’t give a damn what he have to say if it wasn’t for his influence and advice to that other powerful person sitting in Arat Kilo with a loaded gun in his hands aimed at our country.
To start him off Ato Addisu thanked his guest for accepting the invitation and out of curiosity asked him regarding TPLF’s policy of not granting interview to VOA’s Amharic programming. That they do not is an established fact. The question was simply what the reason is for such a policy. His response was outright denial of the existence of such a decision.
Could this be true? There is one Nation wide radio station in Ethiopia, Radio TPLF. By all accounts VOA and Deutche Welle are the two most listened to independent news services favored by the population. The minority based government views unfiltered news as a threat. Thus on numerous occasions it has officially complained to both the US and German government regarding the radio stations. The TPLF regime has invested millions of dollars in purchasing radio signal jamming devices from Chinese and East Europeans to silence independent voices.
Is Ato Sebhat’s claim of the Politburo not discussing VOA and formulating different policies credible? To top if off he said he personally does not listen to VOA! When you consider that the Prime Minter himself anonymously participates in Radio call in shows isn’t this assertion a little difficult to swallow? So he claims that he personally does not listen to VOA and since he came to the US he has been told that ‘VOA lacks objectivity, that it is not balanced and it is in the camp of the opposition’. The word he choose to translate the word ‘camp’ into Amharic is very revealing. He said ‘yetequamiwoch Beret’. As far as I know ‘Beret’ is where we keep animals. Enclosed so they do not escape, watched by guards and dogs so wild animals do not harm them. Is that how he views his fellow Ethiopians. Which of these two are we? The domesticated animals fattened for labor or dinner? Or the stupid and gullible sheep and cows and have to be watched by TPLF cadres from undue influence? A curious choice of words but it speaks a lot about the mindset of the individual and his friends.
The crazy part of this farce is that he is telling all this to Ato Addisu Abebe, a VOA correspondent and victim of TPLF injustice. You see Ato Sebhat’s government charged Ato Addisu and twenty-one Ethiopian journalists with ‘involvement in an attempt to overthrow the government’ in the aftermath of the famous 2005 elections. Ato Addisu is lucky. He has the US government behind him. The Ethiopian journalists suffered a lot. They all lost their livelihood. Some are still in prison. Some were jailed for over two years and their license revoked. A few were hounded out of the country. Many were scared for life. Our country lost its brave and brightest sons and daughters. Ato Sebhat as member of the Politburo is personally responsible and will be asked to account for his actions. Whether this will happen or not is not relevant. He is responsible in the eyes of the Ethiopian people.
The next discussion was about EFFORT (endowments fund for the rehabilitation of Tigrai). The eight hundred-pound gorilla. Ato Sebhat’s claim is that it is the premier corporation in Ethiopia both in asset and reach. After confirming that it is audited both internally and by external government agencies he feigned memory loss when asked to disclose the capital of the multi national in numbers. What he said was ‘it is not important’. It was very curious answer for a person who has been the CEO and President of the company. A company without a balance sheet and net worth unknown to the CEO can only happen in TPLF fairyland.
What was absolutely laughable is the claim that TPLF brought the capital from outside to establish the company in Ethiopia. That is insulting the intelligence of eighty million people. For the life of me I do not remember our Tigrai cousins being known for their special skills in being traders and merchants in our Ethiopia. Here we are in 2009 and the most visible conglomerate is EFFORT and the richest and smartest merchants are our Tigrai cousins. Wonder never ceases. Keep talking Aboy Sebhat.
The next line of questioning has two threads and it is full of the most bewildering mish mash of ideas put together in a very haphazard manner. The first one consists of TPLF’s philosophy of what he refers to as ‘bourgeois revolution’, followed by the party’s view of our country Ethiopia.
Ato Sebhat’s attempt to describe the theory of ‘bourgeois democracy’, ‘revolutionary democracy’, ‘emerging democracy’ or ‘developmental state’ (depending on the mood) the society his party is trying to build in Ethiopia completely went over my head. His claim is that TPLF masquerading as EPDRF is accelerating the growth of capitalism in Ethiopia and will wither away on its own is a very lame interpretation of the Marxist idea of the ‘withering away of the state’ as the final stage of capitalist development. Suffice to say that it is proven to be a fairy tale. So, at a certain point in time EPDRF will hand power to the new classes and disappear. That is what he said and he is sticking by it. He did not elaborate when this is projected to happen or who these new classes are. Why there still are classes upon the withering away of the state is left open. May be the theory is in a developmental state. Let us just say it is not well thought of.
The second thread is where Abboy Sebhat’s version of Ethiopia is defined. When he started the journey to liberate Ethiopia this is where he began. His assertions are very troubling. In computer speak there is something they call GIGO. It stands for garbage in garbage out. A ‘computer will unquestioningly process the most nonsensical of input data and produce nonsensical output.’ The same with leaders saddled with faulty, incomplete, or imprecise and utterly wrong data they come up with wrong and imperfect solutions that cause harm and agony to their people.
His claim that we stayed enclosed in our own regions isolated from each other is utterly false. His assertion that we have been fighting each other for hundred years and lived with our hands in each other’s throat is both ugly and abhorrent. His very violent statement that we do not know each other uttered in such forceful manner is very alarming. He repeated ‘Anetwawekem! Antewawekem!’ twice. It made me very sad. It is far from the truth. It is not the Ethiopia I know and I am a typical Ethiopian.
How he is able to hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time is bewildering. He said that he embarked on the struggle to get rid of national oppression. Well and good. But the solution he came up with is very strange to describe it mildly. In order to foster equality they decided to divide the country into Kilils. Everybody was ordered to get an identity card with his/her ethnicity registered by the authorities and was encouraged and forced to go settle in his own enclave. Those with mixed ethnic identity were forced to pick one. I am sure this did not pose a problem in Adwa, but in the rest of Ethiopia many people were put in absolute quandary. How being strangers to each other was going to foster one people one country is not clear. This was a sad moment in our history
So the theory goes the TPLF as an advanced and vanguard party under the tutelage of Meles Zenawi, Sebhat Nega, Azeb Mesfin, Seyoum Mesfin, Arkebe Uqbai and their immediate families will preside on this lofty Nation building endeavor. The Military and security forces with Woyane Generals and high-ranking officers will work in bringing the Oromos, Amharas, Sidamos, Wolamos, Anuaks and other assorted Nationalities to a newer level of preparedness to build the new emerging Ethiopia.
One can see the common thread in this new philosophy of Nation building process. Our Tigrai masters seem to be the center of the Ethiopian universe with wealth and power emanating out until it engulfs the whole society. Le Ras Sekorsu Ayasnasu comes to mind. What do I think? I think Komatan Komata kalalut Gebeche Lefetfit Yelal is most approperate. I believe for so long no one have bothered to tell Aboy Sebat ‘with all due respect sir, you are full of crap!’ I know it is not grown up, but it serves the purpose. I could put it delicately in a more civilized way. But what is the point?
To come up with such preposterous idea it is possible Ato Sebhat’s Adwa was different. That must be the glass he is using to see Ethiopia. But he lived in Addis while going to Haile Sellasie I University. Did he not see how the others lived together? Wasn’t the cry ‘land to the tiller’ by the privileged University students of the time? Surely the students were not fighting for a plot of land. How about during the fight against the Derg? We are told that the TPLF army was composed of all Ethiopians. Weren’t Addisu, Kuma, Tefera, Aba Dula in the TPLF military or did they have their own regiment? Did they fight for the freedom of all Ethiopians or freedom for their ethnic group?
During the process of Nation building animosity does arise between people. Solving such problems and emerging stronger is a difficult task. Some countries are blessed by visionary leaders that harness the positive power of their people and lay a strong and unshakeable foundation. Some are cursed by the likes of the Rwandan Hutu leaders, Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Stalin in Armenia. They bring war and destruction on their people. They go away but they leave animosity and mistrust behind. It takes a long time to undo the damage they cause. In the mean time the rest of humanity marches forward. Evil has to be stopped at its inception before it takes roots. Silent people allow evil to flourish.
Lots of things were said by Aboy Sebhat. The assertion that there were no national Organizations that fought the Derg is not correct. Without going far both EDU and EPRP were National based and stood for the unity of our country. Both were violently attacked by TPLF. Both were expelled out of Tigrai by TPLF. The EDU leader His Excellency Prince Ras Mengesha Seyoum was warned regarding an official trip to his beloved Tigrai. His presence in Tigrai was a threat to the mighty TPLF. The existence of EPRP was denied. When he said that TPLF was ‘overjoyed’ when they found the existence of Ato Kifle Wodgajo’s party in the USA it was nothing short of wonder about the capacity of Aboy Sebhat’s brain to have woven such a tapestry with imaginary yarn of silk. Listen to it and you be the judge my friends in the Diaspora. You can go to VOA website and listen to it from the archives. Unfortunately our people in Ethiopia cannot do that. There is no electricity; when Internet service is available it is a slow crawling modem with all the independent Ethiopian websites blocked. That in a nutshell is the Ethiopia TPLF is building deaf, blind and ignorant.
Are we becoming an echo chamber for the dictatorship in Ethiopia by repeating its never-ending political babble and lies?
In the high-decibel Diaspora critique of oppression, widespread human rights violations and political dysfunction in Ethiopia, I have observed in dismay some pro-democracy activists, civic leaders, bloggers and media elements parroting and, sometimes unwittingly, toeing the line ordained by the ruling dictatorship. Recently, I did a radio interview in which I was asked for my views on the “coming 2010 elections in Ethiopia,” the “new anti-terrorism law that is before the parliament,” and the “criminal charges and court case against those accused of plotting a coup”, among other things. On previous occasions, I have been asked to comment on “Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia”, the “civic society law,” the “new press law”, and the “revocation of pardon granted to Birtukan” and other topics.
I have often found questions on such topics mildly amusing, but also deeply troubling. By discussing and commenting on such topics without contextualizing and clarifying the assumptions that underlie them, one creates the risk of confusion and confirmation of facts which do not objectively exist. Here I am concerned about the loose and uncritical use of language in political dialogue and discourse. George Orwell, the famous English author whose penetrating understanding of totalitarianism, oppression and the need for clarity in language, argued that modern political prose and speech is intended to hide the truth rather than express it; and by using buzzwords and political platitudes one’s political consciousness and understanding of reality could be badly distorted. Orwell explained, “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind…”
Guarding Against “Doublethink”, “Doublespeak” and the Case for Unmasking Dictatorship
In our time, the means of communication available far exceed any limits that can be imposed upon them by the likes of Orwell’s all powerful Big Brother. The internet makes information available instantaneously to untold millions, which makes the task and duty of telling the truth urgent and all important because of the potential impact of propagating lies on the collective psyche of the citizens who inhabit the borderless cyberspace. Those of us who communicate by using internet technology or manage it must develop an acute sensibility about our indispensable role in public truth-speaking and unmasking official falsehoods. We must guard against both “doublethink” and “doublespeak.”
In his book Nineteen Eighty Four, Orwell wrote:
[Doublethink is] The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.
The result of doublethink and doublespeak is that “war is peace, freedom is slavery ignorance is strength”; or alternatively, dictatorship is democracy; a kangaroo court is a real court of law, rigged and stolen elections are peoples’ choices; terrorizing the population is enrapturing them; and a cascade of lies is a torrent of truth.
What do I think of the “2010 elections”?
To answer this question one must deconstruct the “doublethink” that surrounds the word “elections” Are we talking about the “2010 elections” in the same sense as the “elections” of the apartheid regime in South Africa from 1948-1994? That illegal white minority regime defended its “democratic elections”. Or are we talking about elections a la Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe where opposition leaders were beaten and their followers harassed and jailed? Or elections held under the spiritual guidance of Ghaddafi’s Greenbook in which the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Command Council are ordained to rule forever while local congresses are elected periodically? Perhaps we could be talking about the “2010 elections” in the same sense as the 2002 Iraqi elections where Izzat Ibrahim, Vice-Chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council under the regime of Saddam Hussien, declared, “There were 11,445,638 eligible voters [in Iraq]- and every one of them voted for the president.”
To talk meaningfully about elections, one must frame the question in terms of the preconditions that make possible the likelihood of free and fair elections such as the existence of competitive political parties, a functioning independent media and civil society institutions, free exercise of civil and political liberties by the people, the application of the rule of law and other similar things. An election that is not free and fair is not an election; it is a cruel fraud perpetrated on citizens. Thus, it is meaningless — nonsense– to talk about any kind of elections in Ethiopia. The most important opposition leader in Ethiopia, Birtukan Midesa, is jailed for life on trumped up charges, and opposition political parties suffocate under the oppressive thumbs of a brutal and maniacal dictatorship. Since the 2005 elections, we have witnessed widespread violations of human rights and unspeakable political violence. There are no independent newspapers and civic society institutions are outlawed. There are no independent institutions through which citizens can meaningfully participate in the political process or assert their rights against the state. Under these circumstances, to talk about a having elections in Ethiopia in 2010 is as meaningful as taking about a fish riding a bicycle!
What do I think of the “new anti-terrorism law”?
To answer this question, at least three logical proposition must be true: 1) There is such a thing as the rule of law in Ethiopia. 2) There is a legitimate law making body to enact laws. 3) The “anti-terrorism law” itself conforms to the “supreme law of the land” (“constitution”). Proposition one is false because there is no rule of law in Ethiopia or anything that approximates it. Because Ethiopia is ruled by a dictatorship, the arbitrary command of the dictator is “The Law”, which trumps any other law in the country. The dictator and his coterie can order the arrest, imprisonment, torture and killing of any person in the country with impunity. Following the elections of 2005, security force under the direct command and control of the leader of the dictatorship fired on unarmed protesters and killed 193 persons while wounding 763, with impunity. Proposition two is false because a rubber-stamp parliament is incapable of performing the legitimate function of legislation which requires genuine broad-based deliberation, consultation, negotiation and accommodation. Proposition three is false because the draft “anti-terrorism law” before the rubber-stamp parliament is a violation of the “constitution”. Ethiopia’s former president and parliamentarian Dr. Negasso Gidada described it as “unconstitutional” and a tool to terrorize opposition groups in the country:
The proposed bill contradicts the constitution by violating citizens’ rights to privacy… and it generally violates the rights of all peoples of Ethiopia… Such laws are manipulated to weaken political roles of opposition groups there by arresting and prosecuting them using the bill as a cover.
OFDM chairman and parliamentarian Bulcha Demeksa described the bill as a
a weapon designed by the ruling party not only to weaken and totally eliminate all political opponents. Ethiopian election is next year and if this law is endorsed it will definitely be very hard for opposition groups to run for election… Our campaign for election, political or other meetings will be restricted under this law as a single call from any one to the police, no matter if there is any evidence or not could be considered as terror-related activity and put us all in jail.
To talk about a “law” that is designed as a weapon of mass incarceration, persecution, oppression and suppression of the civilian population and political opposition as a legitimate law is as meaningful as talking about a fish riding a bicycle!
What do I think about “Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia”?
The war waged in Somalia by the dictatorship is a war of aggression and illegal under international law. But it is totally wrong to characterize it as “an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia.” It is an illegal war waged in the name of Ethiopia and its people. War is a matter of the ultimate seriousness undertaken only when a nation faces grave danger and only after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been exhausted or proven to be impractical, and the prospect of success assured. In war, military action is directed against combatants, not civilians. It is illegal to launch an attack on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage.
In a televised speech, the leader of the dictatorship said, “Ethiopian defence forces were forced to enter into war to protect the sovereignty of the nation and to blunt repeated attacks by Islamic courts terrorists and anti-Ethiopian elements they are supporting. Our defence forces will leave as soon as they end their mission. We are not trying to set up a government for Somalia, nor do we have an intention to meddle in Somalia’s internal affairs. We have only been forced by the circumstances.”
Of course, the only reason for the dictatorship’s intervention in Somalia was to “meddle in Somali’s internal affairs” as the dictator himself explained long after the invasion: “But on a more fundamental level it appears that this jihadist movement is hell-bent on controlling all of Somalia. That for them, the negotiations are a ploy used to facilitate their goal. They see Ethiopia as a stumbling block.” By invading, Ethiopia becomes a “stumbling block” to a negotiated settlement in Somalia – a classic Orwellian doublethink and doubletalk. The fact of the matter is that no substantial evidence exists to show “attacks by Islamic courts terrorists” against Ethiopia. The “mission” that began in December 2006 is still ongoing, supposedly after an official “withdrawal”. The number of Somali civilian deaths to date exceeds 20,000, and displaced persons exceeds one million. War crimes charges in Somalia have been documented by international human rights organizations.
Equally important, a legitimate war waged by a nation brings with it accountability because of the enormous sacrifices in lives and resources. The people in whose name the war is waged are entitled to know what happened and hold those who prosecuted the war accountable: Did the leaders lie to them in marching to war? Did the leaders engage in illegal activities? How many soldiers died in the war? How many were wounded? How many civilians? How many of the “enemy” killed and wounded? How many displaced? How much money was spent on the war? If such accounting can not be made, ipso facto, it was and is a private war waged in the name of Ethiopia and its people.
What do I think of Birtukan’s re-arrest and imprisonment by the “government for violation of the terms of her pardon”?
According to the so-called Justice Ministry, Birtukan was imprisoned to serve out a life term because she denied receiving a “government granted pardon… and she failed to annul her denial, though she was repeatedly requested to do so.” This claim is patently false as Birtukan has attested in her widely disseminated public statement Q’ale (“My Testimony”): “As one of the prisoners, I had indeed signed the document, a fact which I have never denied.” The truth of the matter is, to paraphrase the dictator himself, that the ruling dictators are “hell-bent on controlling all of Ethiopia” come hell or high water. Birtukan was re-imprisoned not because she “denied” a “pardon” but because she posed a singular threat to the dictatorship. Here is a young woman who comes from a modest background irrevocably committed to peaceful change and dialogue. She has never advocated violence or armed struggle. There is no reason whatsoever to jail her. But the law of unintended consequences has intervened on her behalf. Birtukan today is the brightest point of light under the blue Ethiopian skies capable of leading the people out of the darkness of repression into the sunlight of freedom. She is a symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, and an outstanding example of the “power of the powerless”. Like Aung San Suu Kyi, Birtukan believes: “‘Human rights’ means every human being should be able to live as free and respected members of society. But we are not free in our own country. We are very much prisoners in our own country. Prisoners of [a regime] which decides whether we have the right to freedom or the right even to live. Many of our people have been arrested without trial or without a fair trial, and many of them have been condemned to long years in prison.” Like Aung San Suu Kyi, like Birtukan!
What do I think about “the charges brought against the persons accused of plotting a coup”?
By official accounts the accused army officers are “desperadoes” whose plan was to “assassinate high ranking government officials and destroying telecommunication services and electricity utilities and create conducive conditions for large scale chaos and havoc.” But even assuming the “charges” were valid, is there a reasonable way to defend against them? To answer this question in the affirmative is to accept the truth of the following assumptions: 1)Political crimes are charged by prosecutorial professionals who make decisions only on the evidence of wrongdoing before them, and without political pressure, manipulation or interference. 2) There is a judicial system that functions independently of the dictatorship. 3) There are independent professional judges who perform their duties not only without political interference but also in active resistance to it and with unshakeable fidelity to the principle of the rule of law.
None of the three propositions is true with the judicial and prosecutorial systems in Ethiopia. As Human Rights Watch concluded in its 2007 report, “In high-profile cases, courts show little independence or concern for defendants’ procedural rights… The judiciary often acts only after unreasonably long delays, sometimes because of the courts’ workloads, more often because of excessive judicial deference to bad faith prosecution requests for time to search for evidence of a crime.” Dictatorships and judicial independence are like oil and vinegar. They do not mix. As vinegar is mostly water, dictatorship is mostly about the rule of one man. As oils are “hydrophobic” (chemically repel water), truly independent courts are “tyranno-phobic”. They repel arbitrary and dictatorial rule. Thus, to talk about justice, due process and the rights of the accused in a dictatorship is as meaningful as talking about a fish riding a bicycle.
Calling a Spade, a Spade
Ethiopians can never be reconciled to a dictatorship that maintains itself by brute force alone. In a country where there are no expressive freedoms but a flourishing culture of corruption and impunity, where the integrity of intellectuals is squeezed out by intimidation, threats and coercion and where universities are turned into temples of darkness, it is important for those in the Diaspora to take every opportunity to unmask the crimes, wrongdoings and brutality of the dictatorship. There is nothing more they wish than to have us become their unwitting cheerleaders talking about their bogus elections, laws and trials. But we should always guard against their ceaseless and slick efforts to make us echo chambers for their rackets. Our job is to call a spade a spade and tell it like it is. Analyze, scrutinize, criticize and publicize the crimes of dictatorship!
(The writer, Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. For comments, he can be reached at [email protected])
