Alemayehu G Mariam
The Man Who Cried “Freedom!”
On May 18, 2012, dictator Meles Zenawi learned a lesson he will not easily forget. In the land of free speech, he was rendered speechless. Abebe Gellaw, a young Washington-based Ethiopian journalist, stood up in the gallery at the Food Security 2012 G8 Summit in Washington, D.C. and slammed Zenawi:
Meles Zenawi is a dictator! Meles Zenawi is a dictator! Free Eskinder Nega! Free Political Prisoners! You are a dictator. You are committing crimes against humanity. Food is nothing without freedom! Meles has committed crimes against humanity! We Need Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
Zenawi was shocked, bewildered, flabbergasted and completely disoriented. It was as though 90 million Ethiopians had lined up pointing an accusatory finger at him and shouting in unison, “Meles Zenawi! You are a dictator!…” In that moment Abebe gloriously realized the true meaning of the tagline of his website addisvoice.com – “A Voice of the Voiceless”. Ironically, the voice of the voiceless rendered speechless the man who had rendered millions voiceless!
Silencing the Silencer: Zenawi Gets a Taste of His Own Medicine
Zenawi had just started pontificating about “agricultural transformation in Africa” and how a “partnership between the farmer and the private sector” would have to be formed to meet the continent’s food needs. But he could only get out 30 words before he was shouted down. It was an incredible sight to behold. Zenawi’s head snapped to attention when he first heard his name and title. He probed the audience confusedly to locate the heckler. When he made eye contact with Abebe, he came unhinged: His eyes bugged out with sheer horror. His jaw dropped as if he had seen a ghost. He looked like the proverbial deer in a headlight; or to use an African metaphor, the vaunted guerilla hero froze like a frightened wildebeest looking into the eyes of a hungry lion. The expression on his face was total disbelief. “Is that Abebe Gellaw? It can’t be! I thought I had him canned in Kality Prison with Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu and Woubshet Taye. What the hell is he doing here?!?”
It was a defining moment — the classic Kodak moment — for Zenawi. After the initial shock, Zenawi tried to quickly regain his composure and continue with his carefully rehearsed and memorized statement. He could not afford to lose his spot in the well-rehearsed statement so he kept on repeating himself like a broken record, “Seventy percent, ah…, seventy percent of the population in Africa…ah..” Nothing doing. He looked to the to the moderator mournfully for help. But the best the stunned moderator could do was bleat out, “security, help please.” For seven seconds, the mighty Zenawi zoned out into a catatonic trance like the patrons of opium dens. For a fleeting moment, he seemed almost comatose. His head was bowed, his back hunched, his chin drooped, his lips quivered and his eyes gazed vacantly at the floor just like the criminal defendant who got handed a life sentence or worse. A close-up video showed him breathing heavily, almost semi-hyperventilating. His pectoral muscles heaved spastically under his shirt. An imminent cardiac event?
Zenawi’s body language spoke volumes. He propped himself up on the edge of his seat. He tried to keep a stiff upper lip as he soliloquized his well-rehearsed monologue. He preteneded as if nothing had happened. He tried to give the impression that he is as cool as a cucumber and unshakable under fire.
After Abebe was escorted out of the hall, Zenawi droned on for just under two minutes arguing for “public investment” and the need for partnership between the smallholder farmer and the private sector. But his argument made no sense at all because smallholder farmers in Ethiopia do not own the land they “hold” as private ownership of land is prohibited by law and the state owns all land. Is it possible to partner with sharecroppers? That was what Zenawi was really talking about. Anyway, he cut to the chase, the real deal: “We want the $22 billion promised. We want the money promised to be delivered,” demanded Zenawi with the polish of a loan shark. He did not say if he wanted it delivered in a suitcase. But everyone got the message. As the old expression goes, “it’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing funny. You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey.”
As Zenawi robotically regurgitated his rehearsed statement, his hands flailed and fingers steepled to give the impression of imperturbable self-control and self-confidence, steadfast composure and resolute authority. But his past demeanor belied his present cool bravado. This is the same man with a short fuse who went into spontaneous self-combustion at the mere suggestion that he give a break to his opposition: “If opposition groups resort to violence in an attempt to discredit the [2010] election,” Zenawi vowed frothing at the mouth, “We will crush them with our full force; they will all vegetate like Birtukan (Midekssa) in jail forever.” When ten thousand tons of coffee went “missing” in Ethiopia in 2011, Zenawi called a meeting of commodities traders and in a videotaped statement told them he will forgive them because “we all have our hands in the disappearance of the coffee”. But he issued a stern warning that if anyone should steal coffee in the future, he will “cut off their hands”.
Zenawi would have gladly crushed Abebe with his full force, have him vegetate like Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu and Woubshet Taye and even cut off his hands, if he could. But the pompous, imperious, derisive and hubristic Zenawi whose lips usually hemorrhage with insolence, insults, cheap shots, sarcasm, acrimony, antipathy, contempt and slander was tongue-tied and speechless against his young accuser. The man who loves to bark, growl and snarl at his parliamentarians, mock and caricature his opposition, play clever semantic games with his interviewers and always eager to display his faux intellectual prowess and erudition to the world sulked and sat mute as a fish listening to his young accuser call him “dictator, a criminal against humanity…”
But there was not much Zenawi could do in America where “free speech is king” and “kings” dutifully bow and kneel before the altar of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He sat on the stage among the other dignitaries and absorbed a full blast of the raw truth in the face, “Meles Zenawi is a dictator….” “The Emperor has no clothes!”
For the first time Ethiopians witnessed Zenawi at his most vulnerable, outside his cloistered bubble unguarded by his yes-men and unsheltered by his gaggle of worshipping cronies. For some, Abebe’s confrontation of Zenawi represented a triumph of David over Goliath; but for others it was a pathetic and pitiful sight to behold the man who had silenced an entire nation for 21 years rendered speechless in 19 seconds flat!
The Power of Free Speech and Speaking Truth to Power
I am for free speech for all, including dictators. I fiercely defended Zenawi’s right to speak at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum in September 2010 despite withering criticism from many in the Ethiopian opposition. But I also defend the right of hecklers to heckle the high and mighty into humility. Why not? President Obama is frequently heckled during his speeches. This past March, he was heckled at Ohio State University. He did not miss a beat talking back to the heckler: “Sir, I’m here to speak to these folks. You can hold your own rally. You’re being rude… don’t interrupt everybody else. Alright?” It did not faze him because he understands the role of hecklers in the comprehensive scheme of free speech.
The “heckler’s veto” is one of the most precious rights of American citizens. The idea is really simple. It is always governments who abuse their power to silence their critics and those who disagree with them. With the “heckler’s veto”, the individual silences the government and the powerful. The tables are turned. In other words, Zenawi was silenced by Abebe!
But as always, Zenawi never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Here he had the perfect chance to deftly respond to Abebe’s claim that “we need freedom more than food.” He could have paused for a few seconds and told him, as countless African dictators have since the early days ofindependence, that the masses of poor, illiterate, hungry and sick Africans are too dumb and too stupid to appreciate democracy. The African masses are interested in the politics of the belly and not in the politics of democracy. Africans live for and by bread alone. Elections, human rights, the rule of law and all the rest are figments of warped Western neoliberal imaginations. The fact of the matter is that Ethiopia for the last 21 years under Zenawi’s boots has had no freedom and very little food to feed its people. So the question is not food without freedom; the question is starvation under extreme oppression.
It is possible Zenawi may think that he should be treated with respect and deference as an African “leader”. Wikileaks cablegrams paint a portrait of a man who suffers from a chronic Adulation Deficit Disorder (ADD). Zenawi desperately seeks praise, adulation, flattery and acceptance in the West and in the Ethiopian Diaspora. He wants to be seen in the West as an African black knight in shining armor thrusting a lance into the heart of poverty, injustice and inequality. He wants to be praised by the Ethiopian Diaspora as a visionary modernizer, creative trailblazer and as a charismatic and transformative leader. He often harps about the failure of Diaspora Ethiopians in not recognizing and giving him credit for the roads he has built, the shiny glass buildings he has erected in the capital and for all of the fabricated improvements in education, health, energy and so on. In fact, that was the very point made by the brutish thug in his security detail who threatened to kill Abebe in the hallway of the food security conference: “Ethiopia has changed. It is because you have not been back and seen the changes [that you are complaining]. Ethiopia is in a very good situation. It is people like you who make noise from a distance.”
But Ethiopia is not in a “very good situation.” Though Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country and has the second largest population, she is also the second poorest country in the world after Niger according to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHDI) Multidimensional Poverty Index 2010 (formerly annual U.N.D.P. Human Poverty Index). Tens of millions of Ethiopians have managed to live for the past two decades only because of international food handouts. Transparency International (Corruption Perception Index) has ranked Ethiopia at the bottom of the barrel of countries ruled by the most corrupt governments for the past decade. The Legatum Institute in 2011 reported Ethiopia has the “sixth highest unemployment rate in the world… [It has a] communication infrastructure [that] is weak with only five mobile phones for every 100 citizens…The education system is poor at all levels and its population is deeply dissatisfied… Access to hospital beds and sanitation facilities is very limited, placing the country 109th and 110th (very last) on these measures of health infrastructure…”
Just last week the Economist Magazine reported: “The heart of the Ethiopian capital may be traversed by new concrete arteries and bridges, built by Italian and Chinese contractors with Chinese loans. But the rest of Addis Ababa is a patchwork of dirt paths lined by corrugated-tin dwellings that are the capital’s shantytowns and slums… Outsiders wanting to do business in Addis Ababa must forge good relations with Mr Meles and his ministers.” In other words, if you want to do business in Ethiopia, you better be prepared to grease some palms (that is, lay some serious cash on Zenawi and Co.) big time. These are the incontrovertible facts about Ethiopia’s “very good situation”.
A Teachable Moment
In 1798, the U.S. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Act and imposed fines and imprisonment against anyone who “wrote, printed, uttered or published any scandalous and malicious writing” against the government. Various newspaper editors of the time were arrested and some imprisoned for criticizing President John Adams’ “unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and self avarice”. Thomas Jefferson pardoned all of those serving sentences under the Act when he became president. In 1787 he wrote: “If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the latter.”
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution offers no safe harbor from criticism to the president of the United States or to a tin pot African dictator visiting the United States. Withering and stinging criticism are the price of political office in America. Holding political office in America is a solemn constitutional duty and criticizing political leaders and institutions is a bedrock constitutional right of all citizens. All American politicians understand and live by one rule: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” It’s good advice Zenawi should heed.
Just as I am for free speech, I am also for civility, affability and cordiality. But Zenawi must understand that he cannot get what he cannot give. In his stage-managed dramatic appearances at his parliament, he harangues, berates, belittles and humiliates his timid rubber-stampers. He scorns, scowls at, threatens, browbeats and mocks his opposition. He desecrates the memory and scandalizes the names of past Ethiopian leaders who fought European colonialism with bows, arrows and spears and shed blood, sweat and tears to keep Ethiopia free and independent. Today, he has placed on the auction block the land those great leaders fought to keep free for the new colonial masters from India, China and Saudi Arabia. Wikleaks cablegrams even show that he manipulates, badgers, bullies and strong arms diplomats who interact with him and give him counsel to temper his vengefulness with reason and mercy. But in a country where free speech is a secular religion, he should expect that every word he utters will be challenged, every sentence scrutinized and every idea he introduces in the public forum sliced and diced on the chopping block of critical analysis. More specifically, when Zenawi comes to America on official visit, he has to come prepared not only to con the American public and snag billions in handouts but also defend his shameful record of massive human rights violations in Ethiopia.
When Zenawi came came to speak at Columbia University at the World Leaders Forum in September 2010, I expressed the following sanguine sentiment:
It would be a crying shame for Zenawi to hop on his plane and go back to Ethiopia mumbling to himself something about the ‘extreme Diaspora’ and so on because he is heckled, disrupted or somehow impeded from speaking… Perhaps this opportunity will afford him a glimpse of the clash of ideas that routinely take place in American universities. He may begin to appreciate the simple truth that ideas are accepted and rejected and arguments won and lost in the cauldron of critical analysis oxygenated by the bellows of free speech, not in prison dungeons where journalists and dissidents are bludgeoned and left to rot… Free speech is the key by which one escapes from the steel bars and stonewalls of ‘prejudice and narrow-mindedness.’ I sincerely hope Zenawi will find that key at Columbia and finally escape from his bleak and desolate planet of ‘prejudice and narrow-mindedness.’
Hope, I hope, springs eternal in Ethiopia. I doubt Zenawi will draw a positive lesson from this trip to America, but I pray he will draw a much bigger lesson from history itself: “Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable.”
“Food is nothing without freedom! We Need Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” Abebe Gellaw
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found sat: http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic
http://ethioforum.org/?cat=24
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/ and www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/
VOA Reporter Detained in Ethiopia
It appears Meles Zenawi’s troops are gearing up to attack and destroy Muslim protestors. TPLF forces have been waiting for two events to pass before waging full–scale suppression of the Mulim protests. The first event was the recent World Economic Forum held in Addis Ababa, while the second one was the May 19 Camp David meeting at which Meles pontificated about hunger in Africa. In the meantime, the regime has been frantically holding nationwide meetings to divide and conquer the uprising. But Muslim anger and protests are intensifying. The regime appears ready to do what it does best: arrest and kill its citizens while making sure the outside world does not see the attrocities
By Voice of America
Friday May 25 A Voice of America reporter has been detained in the Ethiopian capital while trying to cover a demonstration Friday.
Witnesses to the arrest told VOA that reporter Peter Heinlein and his translator Simegineh Yekoye were detained while seeking to interview protesters during a Muslim demonstration following Friday prayers in Addis Ababa.
Another Western reporter said there was a heavy police presence at the demonstration and that he also was stopped by police and told to leave the area.
Tom Rhodes, East Africa spokesman for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said he understood that Heinlein was accused of acting “unprofessionally and illegally.” Rhodes said a government spokesman accused Heinlein, who is married to a Danish diplomat, of improperly using a diplomatic vehicle and refusing to show media accreditation.
Rhodes added that the accusations seemed at odds with Heinlein’s reputation as a highly professional journalist who has worked for VOA since 1988.
“However, I would add that Peter Heinlein is a veteran reporter, an experienced and professional broadcaster, so personally I find it rather hard to believe that someone like Heinlein would be reporting unprofessionally.”
In a formal statement from its headquarters in Washington, VOA said, “The safety and welfare of our reporters is our utmost concern and we are working to gather more information about Mr. Heinlein’s status.”
The statement said VOA is in touch with the U.S. Department of State seeking more information and “We urge Ethiopian authorities to allow Mr. Heinlein to carry out his journalistic responsibilities without interference.”
Heinlein reported last week on rising tensions between the government and Ethiopia’s Muslim minority, which has held a series of demonstrations to protest what the community sees as government interference in Islamic affairs.
The CPJ quoted Minister of Government Communications Bereket Simon saying officials wanted to speak to Heinlein about his “unobjective” reporting on the Muslim issue. Bereket did not say whether Heinlein has been formally arrested or charged.
Members of Congress urge Meles to end repression
By Mohammed Keita | CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator
Two members of the U.S. Congress, a Republican and a Democrat, have publicly voiced indignation at Ethiopia’s persecution of journalists under the leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, with both declaring that stability and security are enhanced by press freedom.
Sen. Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat, published a statement Monday in the Congressional Record, the official daily journal of the U.S Congress, following the Camp David G8 Summit last weekend during which President Barack Obama convened four African leaders, including Meles of Ethiopia, for talks on food security in Africa.
In a letter to Obama, CPJ urged the president to engage Meles on ending Ethiopian censorship practices–such as suppressing independent reporting and denying media access to sensitive areas–that undermine international responses to food crises.
“I want to take this opportunity to address the necessity for the United States to help foster stable and democratic nations as partners as we build multilateral coalitions to tackle global issues,” Begich said in his statement. Ethiopia is a key partner of the United States in counterterrorism and regional stability and a major recipient of U.S. humanitarian assistance. Recalling Obama’s 2011 commitment to a G8 declaration on democracy, Begich declared that “as the events in North Africa and the Middle East have shown, supporting reliable autocrats who are helpful on matters of security and economics at the expense of human dignity, basic democratic rights, and access to economic opportunity is more perilous than ever to long-term U.S. national security interests.”
Begich called for the end of the persecution of independent journalists and dissidents rounded up in Ethiopia in the wake of the Arab Spring. “To foster the benefits of a diverse citizenry, the many political prisoners and journalists should be released,” he said. The senator urged colleagues in the U.S. Congress to join him in helping the citizens and government of the Horn of Africa country achieve a national consensus on the value of the free flow of information and make press freedom, as outlined in Ethiopia’s constitution, a reality. “Such are hallmarks of inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and they provide a return of accountability and transparency to both American taxpayers and Ethiopian citizens,” he added.
On Friday, Rep. Edward Royce sent a public letter to Meles in which he expressed “deep concern with the Republic of Ethiopia’s disregard for press freedom.” Royce, a California Republican who chairs a House subcommittee on terrorism, said “national security must not cripple press freedom.” Expressing concern over the prosecution of 11 journalists on terror charges, Royce said that “the judicial process clearly fails to meet international standards,” citing as an example the government’s use of national public media to pressure the courts.
Over the weekend, hundreds of Ethiopian expats gathered near Camp David to protest the country’s slide into authoritarianism, according to news reports. Washington is home to one of the largest Ethiopian diaspora communities in the world, a population that includes three Ethiopian journalists charged in absentia with terrorism in relation to their work, according to CPJ research. A fourth journalist, now languishing in a prison in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, was educated in the Washington area before returning to Ethiopia and launching one of the country’s first independent newspapers. The former editor of another independent Ethiopian paper also lives in Washington after fleeing his homeland in the face of government intimidation.
Alemayehu G Mariam
At the “World Economic Forum Meeting” in Ethiopia last week, dictator Meles Zenawi lectured:
…. My view is that there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy historically or theoretically. But my view is that democracy is a good thing in and of itself irrespective of its impact on economic growth. And my view is that in Africa most of our countries are extremely diverse, that may be the only possibility, the only option of keeping relationships within nations sane. Democracy may be the only viable option for keeping these diverse nations together. Sowe need to democratize but not in order to grow. We need to democratize in order to survive as united sane nations. That’s my view. But I don’t believe in this nighttime, you know, bedtime stories and contrived arguments linking economic growth with democracy. There is no basis for it in history and in my view no basis for it it in economics. And there is no need to have this contrived argument because the case for democracy and can stand and shine on its own…
While visiting Ghana in 2009, President Obama told the following “contrived bedtime story linking economic growth with democracy” to Africans:
Development depends on good governance. History offers a clear verdict: Governments that respect the will of their own people, that govern by consent and not coercion, are more prosperous, they are more stable, and more successful than governments that do not. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny. And now is the time for that style of governance to end…. In the 21st century, capable, reliable, and transparent institutions are the key to success — strong parliaments; honest police forces; independent judges; an independent press; a vibrant private sector; a civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy, because that is what matters in people’s everyday lives…. History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions. With better governance, I have no doubt that Africa holds the promise of a broader base of prosperity….
My Favorite Bedtime Stories
I enjoy bedtime stories as much as the next guy. My favorite is “Pinocchio in Africa”. The wooden puppet wanted to become a human boy but could not stop telling lies and tall tales. Whenever Pinocchio lied, his nose grew longer.
I like the story of “Puff the Magic Dragon and the Land of Living Lies”. Puff took a little girl called Sandy, who lies a lot, to the Land of the Living Lies where honesty and truthfulness are prosecuted. She meets the famous fibbers Pinocchio and the boy who cried wolf; and saw the famous purple cow that no one has ever seen and a pink elephant.
I also enjoy the morality tales of Aesop, the ancient Ethiopian storyteller. Once upon a time there was a wolf who schemed to snatch sheep grazing in the pasture, but could not because the shepherd was vigilant. One day the wolf found the shorn skin of a sheep and dressed himself in it and joined the flock. Soon he began dining on the sheep one by one until he was discovered by the shepherd. That was the end of the wolf; he could no longer steal, kill and eat the sheep.
George Orwell’s allegorical stories of doubletalk and doublespeak told in “political language” are rather delightful because they “make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” So, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” George could have added, “dictatorship is democracy. Tyranny is liberty. Poverty is wealth. Famine is plenty. Censorship is press freedom. Brutality is civility. Mendacity is veracity. Opacity is clarity. Shadow is reality. Depravity is morality and greed is good.”
Oh, Yes! I like children’s rhymes too:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall….
Sane Nations, Insane Dictators and Democrazy
Zenawi said “democracy is the only option of keeping relationships within nations sane”. Here are some true stories of democrazy from the Land of Living Lies:
Freedom House/U.S. State Department (2010)
In April 2008 local elections were held throughout Ethiopia. Freedom House and USDoS report that opposition candidates were subjected to intimidation and arrest by the government prior to the elections making it difficult for them to compete, leading to the opposition boycotting the elections and resulting in a massive victory for government supporters. The ruling party won 99% of the more than three million seats contested.
World Bank (2012)
The May 2010 parliamentary elections resulted in a 99.6 percent victory for the ruling EPRDF and its allies,reducing the opposition from 174 to only two seats in the 547 member lower house… Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Sub-Saharan… At US$390, Ethiopia’s per capita income is much lower than the Sub-Saharan African average of US$1,165 in FY 2010, ranking it as the sixth poorest country in the world.
Amnesty International (2009)
The Ethiopian parliament has adopted a potentially repressive new law which could criminalise the human rights activities of both foreign and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Charities and Societies Proclamation law (2009) is designed to strictly control and monitor civil society in an atmosphere of intolerance of the work of human rights defenders and civil society organisations. The law’s repressive provisions are believed to be an attempt by the Ethiopian government to conceal human rights violations, stifle critics and prevent public protest of its actions ahead of expected elections in 2010.
Human Rights Watch (2010)
Ethiopia’s citizens are unable to speak freely, organize political activities, and challenge their government’s policies—through peaceful protest, voting, or publishing their views—without fear of reprisal. Democracy’s technical framework will remain a deceptive and hollow façade so long as Ethiopia’s institutions lack independence from the ruling party and there is no accountability for abuses by state officials.
Global Financial Integrity/Wall Street Journal (2011)
Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009. That’s a lot of money to lose to corruption for a country that has a per-capita GDP of just $365. In 2009, illicit money leaving the country totaled $3.26 billion, double the amount in each of the two previous years. The capital flight is also disturbing because the country received $829 million in development aid in 2008. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries on earth as 38.9% of Ethiopians live in poverty, and life expectancy in 2009 was just 58 years. The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.
Committee to Protect Journalist (2011)
Ethiopia trails only Eritrea as the foremost jailer of journalists in Africa. Ethiopia’s repression of the independent press has also driven into exile the largest number of journalists in the world. Yet Zenawi told Aftenposten [Norwegian paper] that ‘We have reached a very advanced stage of rule of law and respect for human rights. Fundamentally, this is a country where democratic rights of people are respected.’
Human Rights Watch (2011)
The Ethiopian government is exploiting its vaguely worded anti-terror law to crush peaceful dissent. The anti-terror law itself is a huge problem. The international community, especially the European Union, United States, and United Kingdom, should ask the Ethiopian government hard questions about why it is using this law to crack down on peaceful independent voices.
Committee Statement of Congressman Donald Payne (2007)
H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007, sponsored by Cong. Payne passed the U.S. House of Representatives on October 2, 2007) requires the secretary of state to support human rights by establishing a mechanism to provide funds to local human rights organizations. The bill supports democratization by directing assistance to strengthen democratic processes, prohibits non-humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia if the ruling party obstructs United States efforts to provide human rights, fosters accountability for the actions the Ethiopian Government has taken that undermine rule of law and fundamental political freedoms…. and holds security forces accountable for human rights abuses related to the demonstrations of 2005…
Statement of U.S. Senators Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy on Senate Bill 3457 (2008)
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce the Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Ethiopia Act of 2008. Senator LEAHY joins me as an original cosponsor. The purpose of this bill is to reaffirm policy objectives towards Ethiopia and encourage greater commitment to the underpinnings of a true democracy–an independent judiciary and the rule of law, respect for human and political rights, and an end to restrictions on the media and non-governmental organizations…. As we turn a blind eye to the escalating political tensions, people are being thrown in jail without justification and non-government organizations are being restricted, while civilians are dying unnecessarily in the Ogaden region–just like so many before them in Oromiya, Amhara, and Gambella….
2010 European Union Election Observer Commission Report on May 2010 Election
The separation between the ruling party and the public administration was blurred at the local level in many parts of the country. The EU EOM directly observed cases of misuse of state resources in the ruling party’s campaign activities. The ruling party and its partner parties won 544 of the 547 seats to the House of Peoples Representatives and all but four of the 1,904 seats in the State Councils…. As a result, the electoral process fell short of international commitments for elections, notably regarding the transparency of the process and the lack of a level playing field for all contesting parties.
Zenawi’s response to the 2010 European Union Election Observer Commission Report:
The EU report is trash that deserves to be thrown in the garbage. The report is not about our election. It is just the view of some Western neo-liberals who are unhappy about the strength of the ruling party. Anybody who has paper and ink can scribble whatever they want.
Such are the nightmarish bedtime stories of Meles Zenawi’s Democrazy in Ethiopia!
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at: http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic
http://ethioforum.org/?cat=24
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/ and www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/
Ethiopian activists protest Zenawi rule in demonstration near Camp David G-8 summit
Washington Post
THURMONT, Md. — Dozens of police officers in riot gear contained more than 200 Ethiopian activists who jammed a small Maryland town’s square Saturday to protest their prime minister’s involvement in a global economic summit at nearby Camp David.
Authorities reported no arrests during the three-hour demonstration that shut down the intersection of two state highways through the center of town. The commotion drew scores of spectators, many using cameras to document their town’s latest role in world affairs.
The flag-waving Ethiopian immigrants, mainly residents of the Baltimore-Washington area, were protesting the rule of Meles Zenawi, who was invited along with the heads of Benin, Ghana and Tanzania to discuss food security with leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $3 billion in private-sector pledges to help boost agriculture and food production in Africa.
The United States is a major contributor of aid to Ethiopia, whose longtime leader has been accused of restricting freedoms and news media. Some in Ethiopia see him as a dictator.
“Shame on you!” chanted the protesters, many waving their country’s red, green and yellow flag.
Some held a banner reading, “Zenawi: brutal dictator, pathological liar, mass murderer.”
Police restricted demonstrators to Thurmont, a town of 6,200 several miles from the presidential retreat.
Demonstrator Woni Hailesilassi, a 33-year-old cab driver from Falls Church, Va., said he and four companions tried to drive their car to Camp David but were turned away after 25 minutes of police questioning.
“We need for the people to understand who is the president,” he said, referring to Zenawi. “We know him very well. We want to show that to the world.”
Local resident Cheryl Magers watched the demonstration from the front steps of Thurmont Barber & Styling, across the street from barricades.
“This is quite a commotion,” she said. “And it’s going to be a part of history. That’s why we’re here.”
A few doors down, Christina Spain sold $15 t-shirts reading, “I survived G-8 Summit 2012,” from a sidewalk table. She said she and her boyfriend had 84 of the shirts printed overnight to sell as souvenirs.
“This is not going to happen again,” she said.
Police said there were no arrests or other problems with the protesters.
“Everybody got to come and demonstrate peacefully. There were no issues and that’s what we were hoping for,” said Frederick County Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Jason West, a spokesman for a combined local and state police force.
A handful of demonstrators from Occupy movements in Baltimore, Washington and New Haven, Conn., joined in. Occupy Baltimore member Richard Ochs said many others from the group went to Chicago to join demonstrations against a meeting there of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, starting Sunday.
