An Ethiopian man hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines plane to Aden on April 2. The hijacker later surrendered. The Boeing 727, which was on a domestic flight, was carrying 135 passengers and eight crew members. The plane was allowed to land in Yemen for “humanitarian considerations,” according to Yemeni television.

The man reportedly asked for asylum. The jet was allowed to return to Ethiopia. An Ethiopian airlines spokesman in Addis Abeba said the plane had been on a flight from Dre Dawa to Addis Abeba when it was hijacked.

Another Ethiopian Airline Boeing 727 plane carrying 105 passengers was hijacked to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya on April 12.

The aircraft was on a domestic flight from Addis Abeba to Bahda in Northwest Ethiopia.

The hijackers reportedly demanded $5 million and fuel for the plane to fly to Canada. Initially, the hijackers refused to talk to Kenyan and Ethiopian officials. Later, they released some women and children, and one of the hijackers agreed to negotiate with Kenyan officials. It is reported that after the hijackers surrendered, two grenades were recovered from the plane.

The Ethiopian government has asked Kenyan authorities to extradite the four hijackers in accordance with international conventions against terrorism.

Ethiopia will take part in the 25th Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain in July, according to the Ethiopian Sports and Culture Ministry. The last time Ethiopia participated in the games was 12 years ago in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

According to the Ministry’s officials, Ethiopia will participate in boxing, cycling and long-distance running.

The Ethiopian Olympic Team is planning sports festivals to raise money for participating athletes.

The widely reported tension between the EPRDF and OLF ever since the new government came to power turned to armed conflict last month. In a broadcast statement the EPRDF gave warning to the OLF that “a point has been reached where a choice has to be made between peace and war.” The EPRDF accused the OLF of instigating armed conflicts and engaging in economic sabotage, armed robbery and other subversive activities during the last nine months. The EPRDF also charged that the OLF has planned to form an independent Oromia government.

The OLF says the EPRDF is improperly using its responsibility for the security of the country, as agreed during the July 1 Conference, to try and extend its political influence into the south. “They have closed our offices and arrested our members,” OLF deputy secretary general Lencho Letta told Reuter.

The EPRDF also reported that it foiled a joint offensive launched by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromo (IFLO) on the town of Harer. Samora Yunus, transitional government commander of the Eastern Command of the Army, said that the two organizations staged the attack from Fedis Wereda and Boko localities.

Telecommunications between the capital city of Addis Abeba and Harer and other towns in the Eastern Ethiopia are reportedly inoperative. The traffic between the cities of Harer, Dre Dawa, Asseb and Addis Abeba has been virtually cut off following the destruction of a major bridge by OLF. Supply trucks have been stranded, and the delivery of relief supplies to refugee camps and drought-stricken areas will be stalled for some time, according to local authorities. Rail transport between Addis Abeba and Djibouti and relief shipments to the starving population in the southeast has been blocked by fighting.

Since the formation of the transitional government, the two sides have had differences over such issues as self-determination, regional and local elections and political and military power sharing.

The United States, the World Bank and other donors have threatened to cut off assistance to Ethiopia unless the government ensured security and stability.

In this month’s issue we present Sultan Ali Mirha. He is currently one of the most intriguing political leaders in Ethiopia. The article about the Sultan is intended to introduce him to our readers. In a future issue we shall present articles which discuss other issues concerning the Afar people and the Sultan’s role in Ethiopian national and regional politics.

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In the past few months some of ER’s readers have asked us where the magazine stands on the important issues facing Ethiopia. As a publication, ER doesn’t take any side on any issue. ER is a forum for all Ethiopians despite their social, economic, political or other views. It is a stage where various viewpoints and issues concerning Ethiopians are discussed. ER believes that tolerance of unorthodox and even disagreeable views is necessary to advance the cause of intellectual freedom and free speech.

Ideas are indeed powerful; but their power rests in their ability to move the listener. Weak ideas fail for lack of merit; and the better ones prevail because they address some aspect of the social or political reality and in a unique way captivate the listener.

Debate in the open forum will always expose the fraudulent and harmful ideas. In the final analysis, our belief is that only the individual is singularly competent to pass judgment on the merits. A statesman from an earlier generation once observed: “Everyone is in favor of free speech … but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.”

Elias Kifle
MANAGING EDITOR

By Paul B. Henze
April 1992

The Escarpment Highway
We went to Massawa for an overnight visit during our first weekend in Asmera. The escarpment route from Asmera to Massawa is now free of checkpoints and military patrols. As of early January, the highway had been repaired as far as Mai Atal where it enters the Samhar. The rest of the route had potholes and broken stretches, but repair was underway. A few wrecked trucks and tanks (most of them have been hauled away) and occasional destroyed buildings at the edges of towns where police or soldiers were stationed are all that remain to remind the casual observer of the intense fighting that raged up and down the Eritrean escarpment for more than a quarter century. The towns are intact and full of life. Our traveling companions, a young man and young woman who had both been fighters in the field, pointed out landmarks where EPLF and Derg forces had faced each other. We stopped to look at trenches with shelters roofed with rails rocks. The graceful viaducts and stone tunnel entrances of the railway, which parallel the highway for much of the way, give the misleading impression that the railway could be as easily restored as the road. But most of the rails and cross ties were ripped out and used for fortifications. Picturesque as it is, it seems doubtful whether rebuilding the railway would repay the investment.

When we began the descent outside Asmera the escarpment was covered with dense fog which obscured the old monastery of Debre Bizen. Its monks looked down on the battles below them and survived and are said to be doing well again. Nefasit’s churches and mosques rose proudly out of a tan landscape. But as we drove on to Embatcala everything turned green (from good winter rains) and the scrub vegetation on the distant slopes looked like thick forest growth. We drove through stands of larger trees along the lower escarpment near Sabarguma. Farmers have planted corn, beans and grain in fields around Ghinda and Dongollo. Citrus orchards looked good but are said to need a great deal of rehabilitation and replanting. Local people were selling bananas along the road. Asmera University is preparing to reopen its agricultural research station at Ghinda. With plentiful water, flowering trees and bougainvillea along streets and pathways and green mountainsides as a backdrop, Ghinda is as beautiful as any town in Eritrea.

Upper and Lower Dongollo, the source of the best mineral water in Eritrea (readily available in Asmera) provided a final spectacle of lavish greenness before we descended into the thorntrees of the escarpment foothills and than entered the desert. The massive, unattractive Italian-built bridge over the Dogali Wadi has survived intact, but the red star-capped monument which Mengistu had built to commemorate the famous defeat of the Italians on its hundredth anniversary in 1987 is gone.

Destruction in Massawa
We had heard so many reports of the devastation Massawa suffered from Derg bombing that we were prepared for the worst as we approached the city. I had seen a good deal of destruction when I was there in the spring of 1987. That damage had been done during the fighting in the winter of 1977-78 when Eritrean fighters came close to capturing the city from the Derg until factions began quarreling among themselves. The Russians came to the Derg’s rescue with air and naval bombardment. The mainland portions of the city had suffered severely and local people still cursed the Russians for causing unnecessary destruction. On this trip, as we entered the outskirts of Massawa, we saw no undamaged large buildings. Some were in total ruins. on the north side of the highway the railway tracks are still crowded with engines, boxcars and flatcars that have been rusting for two decades.

Wrecked Equipment and Soldiers’ Bones
Our first stop was a compound on the south side of the highway–a “graveyard” of destroyed Derg equipment. It was filled with wrecked tanks, trucks, jeeps, pieces of guns, piles of shells and stacks of other military debris and equipment brought in from the countryside. It was appalling and depressing.

We crossed the highway and drove a short distance through the sand to a large thorntree surrounded by a crude fence of corrugated tin. Inside dark green Russian ammunition boxes were stacked two and three high. Several had broken open. Out tumbled human skulls and bones mixed with helmets, boots, cartridge belts and knapsacks! The skeletons were dismembered. In all these must have been the remains of at least a hundred men.

All the boxes had cyrillic lettering. A few had the notations “Dogali #1” and “Dogali #2” chalked on them in Ethiopic letters. Why were they stacked here? We were told that when the city was captured no one had noticed these boxes among all the other debris that littered the landscape. When they were discovered, no one could be found to explain where they had come from. They were thought to be the remains of soldiers killed many years before. Perhaps they had been dug up for reburial and then abandoned in the confusion of later fighting. They will be buried again, still unidentified. Unknown soldiers. They are only a few of the tens –perhaps hundreds?– of thousands of young men who died in the fighting in the Derg’s futile effort to subdue Eritrea.

Into Massawa
We drove past more buildings pockmarked from shellfire and with gaping holes from artillery and bombs. We stopped at the edge of the sea where we could look out to the two islands which form the heart of the city. Several rusting tanks were mired in mud where the highway approaches the causeway that crosses to the island of Taulud. The causeway was undamaged and the road surface was intact. Streets which had been blocked by debris from buildings and wrecked vehicles when the city was captured by EPLF forces and then bombed by the Derg have all been cleared and the potholes and craters have been filled.

The monumental Orthodox Church of St. Mary with its prominent dome seems to have been especially attractive to the Derg’s air force. Solidly constructed of massive stone blocks, it is still standing, though all its glass has been shattered. Workmen were busy repairing the walls. Restoring this church to its original condition will take time and money. Inside the odor of incense overcame the odor of rubble. The church was in use. Stacks of kabaros, tsinatsels, umbrellas and vestments were ready for use. The next morning, a Sunday, a large crowd was attending services when we came by.

In the area between the church and the sea we found another graveyard of Soviet equipment –thousands of tons of tanks, trucks, and guns –much larger than the first we had seen. Here, next to the sea, it would be easy to load the stuff on ships and send it out if it can be sold for processing as scrap.

Haile Selassie’s palace in ruins
It is hard to see what military significance Haile Salassie’s palace at the north
end of Taulud could have had. This Arabian-nights structure surrounded by splendid tropical gardens must have been easy for the bombers to find. It is the most severely damaged major structure in Massawa. It took many direct bomb hits. Badly “wounded” statues of lions lie in the gardens which have died out completely from lack of water. Workmen were sawing up the remaining and making piles for burning charcoal. The grand staircase of the palace was covered by an avalanche of stone and mortar from the walls above. Making our way around the second story arcade, we were happy to find that most of the splendidly carved wooden doors and Islamic-style window screens were intact. Rooms that had escaped destruction were piled with monumental furniture, carved screens and art. All were locked. Nothing appeared to have been looted. Isayas Afewerki told us when we saw him in Asmera the next week that they planned eventually to rebuild the palace and turn it into a museum, as they have done with the undamaged imperial palace Asmera. “These palaces are part of our history,” he said, We want to preserve them.”

The Red Sea Hotel
The south end of Taulud has suffered less severs damage. We were pleased to find a bit of bougainvillea still blooming in the gardens of the Red Sea Hotel. The bar was open and offering Amstel beer and soft drinks. A waiter recognized me from my stay in the hotel in 1987. The gardens of Mme. Melotti’s beautiful villa on the southern tip of the island have lost some of their trees but are in far better condition than those of the imperial palace. It suffered only a couple of artillery hits. The caretaker showed us a large spot in the swimming pool where one of the generals committed suicide when the EPLF captured the city.

We checked in at the Dahlak Hotel, a large modern, multi-story structure next to the causeway that leads to Massawa island with a good view of the old city. A modernistic garden annex was being renovated for guests. Its bedrooms had just been painted and they could not be occupied. The kitchen and storerooms were badly shot up and the restaurant, with a fine view of the old city on Massawa Island, was in a state of total disorder. The second floor had been cleaned up for visitors. The hall was decorated with old photographs. We were given a simple, clean room with a working bathroom. Massawa has running water that comes form a restored well in the Dogali Wadi and has round-the- clock electricity from oil generators.

Old Massawa
The outermost island –old Massawa proper– was our destination. We spent the evening and the morning of the next day there. Its splendid old buildings, many of which date from the time of the Turks, have not been as severely damaged as many reports claimed. But the basic structures are intact and the charming arches and balconies can be readily repaired. People were already working some of them. The streets were busy and boys were playing soccer in an open space. The oldest mosque, painted a bright mint green, is undamaged.

In the port, a Sudanese ship was unload bags of textile sizing from England. Three large cranes are in working condition. The lighthouse on the outermost point of the island is operating and men were fishing along the shore. Nearby, large quantities of steel rods and construction reinforcements were stacked in huge piles. They had recently arrived and were labeled for transport to Tigre.

Food, Drink and Entertainment
Massawa must have at least two dozen colorful bars, all doing good business. We had a refreshing papaya and banana frappe in one. At another which had a refrigerator full of Melotti beer we had a good dinner. The Asmera brewery is working but has difficulty supplying the demand throughout Eritrea. Small traders have opened shops throughout the city, as have tailors, shoemakers and leather workers. Large quantities of fruit and vegetables were on sale in the central market brought down from Ghinda and Dongollo. An ample supply of Italian style bread is assured by continued relief deliveries. The World Food Program has an office in the port. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked into the Eritrea Provision Company to find a well stocked grocery. Goods are coming in by dhow from Yemen. Local fishermen are already sending 600 kilos to Asmera daily but new boats are necessary to expand the catch. The rich shrimp and lobster beds off the coast are not yet being exploited.

Massawa’s Future
It would be incorrect to say that Massawa presents a picture of prosperity. But neither is it a spectacle of devastation. The city is alive. There are at least as many people as there were in 1987 and they are working, not simply existing. Reconstruction will require a good supply of labor for a long time to come. Labor can be attracted from the highlands. With peace assured, the salt industry can be reactivated. Boat-building and maritime servicing industries will develop again. There are opportunities for expansion of
fishing and tourism. The provisional government of Eritrea hopes to turn the Dahlaks into a major destination for European tourists in the winter. The Russians left behind a huge base with a working desalination plant. Europeans and Israelis have already shown interest in developing it commercially. Italians and Israelis are said to be considering investing in fishing.

As the flow of aid to Eritrea and the pace of investment pick up, Massawa, as Eritrea’s main port is bound to benefit. Isayas Afewerki told us his government is committed to restoring the city completely and investing in its future. A new phase of the long life of this historic city has begun. We left Massawa with the expectation that when we return in a year or two it will have made significant progress toward prosperity.
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Paul B. Henze works for Rand Corporation. Mr. & Mrs. Henze spent 6 weeks in Ethiopia beginning in January. They spent a week in Eritrea. Mr. Henze has promised to provide us with further articles on other aspects of his visit to Ethiopia. Photos were provided by Mr. Henze.

By Tekeste Wolde Meskel
April 2002

In the past year, Ethiopia has seen great changes. Seventeen years of civil war came to a sudden end and the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam was wiped out to the great relief of the Ethiopian people. On the ash heap of 17 years of Marxist misrule, the seeds of democracy were planted. People can now talk about politics and criticize government leaders without fear. Dozens of political organizations operate freely
throughout the country. Groups who have never been recognized are now given representation. There has been enormous progress on the road to democracy.

The seeds of democracy are now beginning to take root and we must give credit where it is due. Honesty requires that we recognize the unique contributions of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to Ethiopia’s political reawakening and development. The EPRDF, having “won” the war, could have
taken over power and ruled in the old style. No doubt different groups would have opposed it and new conflicts would have been created. But that would have been “Ethiopian politics as usual.” That is more wars and destruction. But today, unlike any other time in Ethiopia’s history, the people are enjoying democratic freedoms.

The EPRDF leadership has been quite sensible. It recognized that war is not the solution. It agreed to an equitable sharing of political power based on a recognition of the people’s unique cultural and ethnic heritage. It proposed free elections under international supervision.

The past year has shown that there is great distrust of the EPRDF and its “hidden agenda.” But the criticism and mistrust are largely misplaced. Apply a simple test: Has there ever been the kind of political debate and activity that is going in Ethiopia? Certainly, not. Almost alwasy a change of government in Ethiopia means more wars and political oppression. If the EPRDF had opted for war, Ethiopia would have been isolated from the international community. But as Mengistu has shown, who cares?

Many criticize the EPRDF for what it has done and has failed to do. Words of praise and acknowledgement are far and few between. People read their own biases in the words and actions of the EPRDF. For instance, the democratic freedoms made possible by the EPRDF are interpreted to be some sort of clever political strategy to trick the people. When new a idea is proposed for power sharing, it is characterized as a plan to dismember the country. When the EPRDF ordered the digging up and proper reburial of people murdered by Derg, critics say the EPRDF is just trying to distract the people from the “real problems.”

Critics say the EPRDF is dismantling the industry in the rest of the country to send to Tigray or Eritrea. The elections are said to be already rigged because the EPRDF could never win free elections. It is a no win situation!

The bottom line is: Is Ethiopia better off today than it was a year ago? On balance she is. The people are experiencing real democracy. Certainly, the country’s economy is in shambles. But this is the work of Mengistu Haile Mariam who destroyed the country’s economy through his ignorant experiments in Marxism. To add insult to injury, Mengistu cleaned out the country’s treasury as he began his new life of royalty in Zimbabwe.

It is unfair to blame the EPRDF for the dire economic situation in the country or its inability to resolve them in one year. It is unreasonable to expect full repair to an economy which took 17 years to destroy.

Is the EPRDF on the right course in solving the long term economic problems of the country? This is a fair question. President Meles says he favors free enterprise and also state ownership of major industries and economic sectors. Is he saying this because he is a “closet Marxist?” Probably not. He may have political and practical reasons to hold this view. He may be responding to the pressures of some “hard core” elements in his organization. True, these individuals have yet to “wake up and smell the roses.” But they do have some influence on the organization’s political programs.

The political reasons seem to be more persuasive. Let’s take land, for instance. If land were to be “denationalized” who is going to get it? The old landowners? Obviously, this is impractical. What about industry? There are few viable industries in the country that are operational. Who will buy these semi-functional industries? Without belaboring the point, Russia is having a fire sale on state-owned industries. So far, few takers.

This is not to suggest that the EPRDF is completely blameless. It should be blamed for its failure to properly inform and educate the public about the country’s problems and solutions. It should be blamed for prematurely announcing major changes without laying the necessary foundation. It should be blamed for failing to make clear the lines of demarcation in its role in the transitional government and the role of a popular government yet to be elected. Yet these are not fatal errors. Teaching about democracy and the need for change takes time, effort and limitless patience.
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Tekeste Wolde Meskel is a business consultant residing in Atlanta, Georgia.