Governance and Human Rights: How to win elections in Ethiopia
Presented at Conference on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, 9-11 April 2010
By Theodore M. Vestal
Governance in Ethiopia suffers from deficits of democracy and abuses of human rights. For eighteen years tyranny in its harshest form has persisted. The people endure under a despotic system marked by brutality, corruption, poverty, and suffering. What democratic freedoms the people might once have enjoyed are eroded, and basic human rights, including freedom of religion, conscience, speech, assembly, association, and press are badly abused. Specifically, there are limitations on citizens’ right to change their governments; official impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; difficult prison conditions; and interference with privacy rights. Human rights reports cast doubt on how effective the rule of law really is. Due process of law and equal protection of the law appear lost.
These shortcomings come together in “elections” held in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), since coming to power in 1991, has won all the elections held in Ethiopia. The party has literally written the book on how to win elections in Ethiopia. But the political processes are an integral part of the entire EPRDF gestalt. A “wholeness” that makes difficult the separating of any component parts of the Party’s organization and practices.
In analyzing the theory and practice of EPRDF’s “success” in governing and electioneering, the acronym POSDCORB of classical public administration is relevant.1 The acronym which formulates the responsibility of a chief executive stands for the principles of Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting. The EPRDF, from the beginning of its reign, has followed, perhaps willy-nilly, these principles of administration. My remarks will look at how and why the EPRDF has governed, abused human rights, and won all the elections by applying the principles of the acronym.
I. PLANNING, that is working out in broad outline the things that need to be done and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise:
A. EPRDF’s “Our Revolutionary Democratic Goals and the Next Steps” (1993) distributed to party cadre but not made public. (Ethiopian Register 1996.2)
Clear statement of political and economic goals of the Front and the strategies and tactics to be used in attaining them. Revolutionary Democracy based on idea that Party leaders at the center of public life should direct all aspects of society on the basis of a superior knowledge of the nature of social development conferred on them by the party ideology. The reality is a classic totalitarian structure, an attitude of “We know what is best for you,” a wholeness of purpose generated from the roots of the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray from which too much resort to reason and language is not welcome and supposedly is conducive to separation from the utopian society envisioned by the Party’s true believers.
1. Political Goal: materializing the peoples’ political and human rights completely vs. “oppressors,” those who oppose the EPRDF. If rights of oppressors or vacillators clash with rights of masses, the rights of the oppressors will have to be suppressed.
a. Constitution protects rights of masses. Institutions are established to protect the constitution and EPRDF-made laws. When oppressors obstruct the exercise of the rights of the masses, any relevant legal article can be cited to punish them. Enforced by police and army.
b. Political parties: the masses will have many parties and oppressors will have the opportunity to organize. If oppressors try to obstruct the masses from exercising their rights, the constitution and other laws will be used to punish them and bring under control their illegal activities.
2. Set up government to ensure all-round participation of the masses. Power structure to enable people to decide on local issues at Kebele, Woreda, zone, regional, and central level.
3. Ensuring peoples’ right to self-determination and building Ethiopia’s unity based on equality and free choice. EPRDF credo: nations, nationalities, and peoples’ right to secede.
B. Political Strategies: ensure permanent hegemony
1. “Only by winning the elections successively and holding power without letup can we securely establish the hegemony of Revolutionary democracy. If we lose in the elections even once, we will encounter a great danger. So, in order to permanently establish this hegemony, we should win the initial elections and then create a situation that will ensure the establishment of this hegemony. In the subsequent elections, too, we should be able to win without interruption.”
2. “Should the enemy and vacillators win elections and gain hegemony, the country will be hurled into an endless crisis and Ethiopia would not survive as a nation.”
II. ORGANIZING, that is the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which work subdivisions are arranged, defined and coordinated for the defined objective;
A. EPRDF’S Organizational Structure and Operation, 1995: to secure the highest unity between the thoughts and action of the Front and its members.3 Struggle for Revolutionary Democratic goals by extending control over political, economic, and social activities of the country. Works primarily through cadres, professional revolutionaries whose occupation is largely or entirely political activity. The work of cadres blurs the line between the state and the ruling party giving them a two-edged sword with which to cut down the opposition.
1. Organizational ladder descends from highest rungs of government to lowest steps of rural locality. “Democratic centralism:” offices of President, Prime Minister, Parliament, central government ministries and agencies, including public enterprises–all are part of Party network.
2. In states, EPRDF organizational units control activities in killil, zonal, woreda, sub-woreda, and kebele administrations and thus are able to intimidate individuals at a household level. Universities, high schools, hospital and non-government organizations, and profit-for-the-party companies are in the scheme.
3. Major responsibility of cadres is “monitoring” (spying on) the people in general and opposition forces in particular. Cadres infiltrate independent associations, such as trade unions, professional organizations, or any other civil associations, and attempt to take over positions of leadership. Any organization that is not controlled from the top by cadre is considered dangerous and is to be opposed vehemently.
4. The ethnic components of the Party, the TPLF, OPDO, ANDM, and SEPDF have their own parallel leadership structures but command of the ethnic fronts remains with the leadership of the EPRDF.
5. Encouraging membership in the EPRDF by making access to fertilizer, food assistance, health care and schools conditional on membership of the ruling party. Conversely, withholding such carrots is used to punish and ostracize those perceived as supporting the political opposition
B. Organization and propaganda mobilize the masses.
1. Mold the outlook of the rank and file members and the public at large by firmly indoctrinating them with the outlook of revolutionary democracy. Party control of mass media is vital to the effort.
2. Party dominates independent associations while maintaining their façade of autonomy. Where difficulties arise, create new organization. The aim of these organizations: to duplicate all existing professional associations and then to destroy the credibility of the older existing ones in the eyes of the general public.
III. STAFFING, that is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining favorable conditions of work.
a. Cadre and their training and discipline, omnipresent throughout system.
b. Pervasive bureaucracy staffed by Party. All provide protective mask for the inner, elite corps with their special tool–the secret police. In the center is the Party Leadership exercising total, arbitrary control and demanding instant, unquestioning obedience.
c. Non-independent judiciary to interpret laws in politically correct way.
d. EPRDF-controlled military to provide security for the regime and control of society. Police, under Party control, maintain internal security. Midnight raids of homes of political opponents to haul off suspects for unspecified crimes for unspecified periods of time—frequently to secret places of incarceration. If the suspects get released, they have to sign a pledge to abstain from political activities and have to frequently sign-in with the local kebele to make sure they are behaving. The EPRDF rules by having a monopoly of terror. Controls by inducing fear and repression—classic totalitarianism, according to Hannah Arendt.
IV. DIRECTING, that is the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and general orders and instructions and serving as the leader of the enterprise.
a. EPRDF maintains power by stifling political opposition and bridling dissent. The number of political prisoners in the country has been a not very secret disgrace since the EPRDF came to power. The most glaring example of that is, of course the imprisonment of opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa, whose pardon for alleged acts of treason was revoked as she was rearrested and given a life prison term for failing to deliver a public apology for acts committed during the post-2005 campaign. The recent murder of a political opponent in Tigray is but the latest in a continuing series of politically motivated killings, kidnappings, disappearances, torture, rapes, and beatings. There have also been insidious threats against leading activists, which have forced a number of them to flee the country. All of this is done with impunity for the perpetrators—official or otherwise.
b. Laws impose difficult requirements on opposition political parties and voluntary associations. Elections sideline the opposition before it gets organized.
c. Regulations purportedly guarantee responsible behavior of independent media in reality muzzle them. Journalists threatened or arrested. Blocking out broadcasts of the Voice of America or controlling content of the internet are flagrant abuses of the citizens’ rights to a free flow of information—without which democracy cannot exist.
d. Prior to the 2010 elections, legislation was introduced in parliament designed to stifle independent activity by civil society groups in Ethiopia, clamp down on election media coverage, and limit acts of political protest, all under the pretext of government concerns about fighting terrorism.
V. COORDINATING, that is the all-important duty of interrelating the various parts of the work.
1. EPRDF in all its guises, governmental and private sector, central government and state governments, ethnic groups—pervasive throughout society.
2. Layer upon layer, like the body of an onion: all but the deadly core operating as automatons in a monstrous, mindless and malevolent bureaucracy. All coordinated from the top party leadership.
VI. REPORTING, that is keeping those to whom the executive is responsible informed as to what is going on, which thus includes keeping himself and his subordinates informed through records, research and inspections.
VII. BUDGETING, with all that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control.
a. TPLF controls the country’s leading corporations and, by extension, most of its trade.
b. EPRDF with crony capitalists occupies the “commanding heights of the economy.” They have done so since their days in the bush taking in humanitarian aid that ended up in other budgeting pockets.
c. The party has an array of anticompetitive weapons, and it has adroitly found ways to restrain trade, rig markets, and suppress competition.
d. According to international financial institutions, the EPRDF controls or owns most of the Ethiopian economy
That is the POSDCORB of the EPRDF. Life is tolerable for cadres and members who believe in the ideological goals and outcomes of the party. For others, especially those identified as enemies of the regime, life is “Hell with the lid off.”
How does Ethiopia escape from the dominance of an autocratic state and party? Past experience suggests that the EPRDF will never willingly share power widely nor will it allow meaningful political competition to thrive. So long as the EPRDF enjoys a monopoly of terror there will be no change in the Party’s domination. Continued repressions may well invite a return to civil war. The alternatives make a negotiated attempt at establishing a liberal democracy all the more attractive.4 I fail to see negotiation coming about without a major change in circumstances. Who or what can make such a change remains to be seen. Friends of Ethiopia can only hope it will come about sooner rather than later.
Notes
1. POSDCORB is an acronym created by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick in their “Papers on the Science of Administration” (1937). [Gulick, Luther Halsey, and Lyndall F. Urwick, eds. 1937. Papers on the Science of Administration. New York: Institute of Public Administration.] Developed as a means to structure and analyze management activities, it set a new paradigm in Public Administration. Based on the theories of Henri Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management, Gulick and Urwick disputed the prevailing thinking that there was a dichotomy between politics and administration. Instead that it was impossible to separate the two. It has been called the “high noon of orthodoxy,” due to the assumption that it was the principles that were important and not where they were applied. [Nicholas Henry, “Paradigms of Public Administration,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 35, No. 4, (July – Aug., 1975) p.380.]
2. Vestal, Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999), chapter 7, “The Strategy of the EPRDF.”
Virginia Declaration of the Conference on Good Governance, Peace, Security and Sustainable Development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa
A three day conference on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, which was organized by two civil society organizations- Advocacy for Ethiopia (AFE) and Ethiopian National Priorities Consultative Process (ENPCP), and sponsored by Trans Africa Forum and Africa Action, was successfully held in Crystal City, Virginia, from April 9 to 11, 2010. The participation of several hundreds of Ethiopians, experts, scholars from the United States and Europe, men and women of the Arts, former diplomats and leaders of civic organizations, with Honorable Ana Gomes of the European Parliament, speaking over the telephone from the Sudan, made the conference rich and unique. The conference addressed broad themes of good governance, conflict, civil society and development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, and has adopted the following roadmap:
ALARMED by the escalation of ethnic and religious polarization, active and latent conflicts in Ethiopia and Somalia, further endangering the livelihood of millions of people and disturbing international peace, and the total absence of a freely elected and accountable governance system in the region;
DEEPLY CONCERNED by the political, economic and social policies implemented by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in the last 19 years, which has failed to make maximum use of the catalytic roles of the donor community’s commitment for good governance, building national consensus, and boosting productivity and alleviating endemic poverty;
NOTING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT that, despite the unabated generous aid flows estimated at $25 billion to $30 billion since 1991, almost all of the credible international economic and governance indices rank Ethiopia at the tail end of world development, to the extent that the country, by the end of 2009, had an estimated 5 million orphans and 13-14 million or 16 percent of the country’s population being identified as dependent on international food aid. Notwithstanding these, the government unashamedly claims double digit economic growth and success in the alleviation of poverty;
RECONGNIZING with dismay that Ethiopia will be entering the next election without adequate preparation, and more importantly, under a cloud of impunity, relentless human rights violations, vigilantism, and the incarceration of political leaders like Ms. Birtukan Mideksa and others, while at the same time the ruling party uses federal and foreign aid funds to recruit youth supporters, all these being done with the intent of building a single-party state.
NOW THEREFORE, We, the AFE and ENPCP, together with the broad cross-section of Ethiopian participants of the three days conference:
1.1 Have agreed that the quagmires that Ethiopia finds itself are by and large a result of the 19 years of poor political leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his TPLF/EPRDF party. We strongly believe that neither peace nor development can be achieved and sustained while Ato Meles Zenawi is in power. Hence, he must immediately exit the Ethiopian political scene, preferably peacefully.
1.2 We call upon all political parties, including the TPLF/EPRDF, to convene an all inclusive National Conference for Peace and Reconciliation, with a view to establishing a Transitional Government of National Unity that prepares the country for an unfettered free and fair election.
1.3. Call on the Ethiopian people to continue their valiant struggle for peace, democracy and respect for the rule of law. We urge all Ethiopians to continue to resist the divide and rule policies of the regime; we also admire the resistance of the Ethiopian people against religious extremism.
1.4 Call upon the Ethiopian people inside the country and in the Diaspora to support and stand with forces that celebrate our diversity while trying to cement the foundations of a united country. We specifically call on all Ethiopians who are being forcefully recruited by the ruling party to side with the people and refuse to engage in any action that may be harmful to their brothers and sisters.
1.5 Commend and applaud opposition parties, civic organizations and their leaders for the work they do under difficult circumstances, and call upon them to create unity, coordinate their efforts, form unbreakable coalitions, and prepare for pre and post election scenarios.
1.6 Call upon the Ethiopian Diaspora to rise to the challenges and provide material, moral and intellectual support to forces that are committed to advancing good governance and democracy in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
1.7 Call for the convening of civil society organizations with a view to establishing strong rights advocacy networks that can better express the voice of the voiceless, and the causes of the people of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
1.8 Encourage all Ethiopians to vote for a party that stands for democracy, good governance, unity, and at the same time support democratic forces that stand to defend and protect their votes.
1.9 Call on Ethiopian Americans to use their voting rights to influence U.S. policies towards Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
1.10 Call upon the citizens of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa to respect and defend the rights of women and children.
1.11 Agreed to establish a working group and broaden the breadth and scope of this declaration so that other stakeholders could join the process in taking the roadmap into action.
2.0 To the TPLF/EPRDF
2.1 Condemn the relentless human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, persecutions and crimes against humanity committed by the TPLF/EPRDF security forces in Addis Ababa, Arba Gugu, Bedeno, Gambella, Hadiya, Hawasa, Ogden, Oromia, and other parts of Ethiopia, and demand that those responsible be held accountable and brought to justice without delay.
2.2 Call for the abandonment of the use of the anti-terrorist and civil society laws as smokescreens to suppress dissent and deny Ethiopians their fundamental economic, social and political freedoms.
2.3 Join human rights organizations, parliamentarians, governments and the Ethiopian people in demanding for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms. Birtukan Mideksa and all other political prisoners.
2.4 Demand that the top brass as well as the rank and file of the Ethiopian military properly reflect the ethnic and religious diversity of the Ethiopian people, and the army’s size, shape, capability and doctrine be improved.
2.5. Demand that the TPLF/EPRDF ceases its manipulation of the electoral process by using federal and donor funds, political party controlled funds, sheltered employment, land and fertilizer.
2.6 Call upon the TPLF/EPRDF and the House of Peoples Representatives to initiate a constitutional reform in accordance to the will of the people, and define a term limit for the office of the Prime Minister.
27 Urge the TPLF/EPRDF to desist from blocking the Ethiopian people from having access to information. We condemn the government’s blocking of the Internet, the jamming of the Voice of America, and the muzzling of the local media.
2.8. Call upon the TPLF/EPRDF to revisit its opaque long-term farmland leases to foreign investors, which we know is dispossessing citizens from the lands and waters on which they depend to survive. We demand the setting-up of an independent expert group, with the full participation of local communities, in order to assess the costs and benefits and ecological as well as social risks of farmland leases to foreign investors. We believe that some of the land leases have the potential to change the geopolitical equation of the region. We also demand that the TPLF/EPRDF discloses all the details of the contracts to the general public.
2.9 Demand that the government discloses the purpose and nature of the ongoing border negotiation with the Sudan, and that TPLF/EPRDF refrains from once again abrogating Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
2.10 Demand the immediate repeal of the charities and societies, media, and the anti terrorism proclamations.
2.11 Demand that political party owned and “endowed” companies be urgently reformed.
3.0 To the people of the Horn of Africa:
3.1 We believe that our similarities and connectedness far outweigh our differences. Let peace and stability and democracy shine in our region. Let’s try our level best so that our wounds heal.
3.2 We encourage the continuation of the relationship that has recently been started by scholars from Eritrea and Ethiopia, and hope that such conversations would lead to new beginning which will be mutually beneficial to the brotherly peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Everyone knows that Eritrea and Ethiopia are invariably linked by history, religion, culture, economy, and security. It is thus costly and wasteful for both to maintain the status quo.
3.3 We encourage free and fair elections in all of the countries of the Horn of Africa. We wish success to the people of the Sudan in the ongoing election, and in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
3.4 We encourage the international community and the people of Somalia to work together in finding solutions to the complex problems of the country.
4. To the Diplomatic and Donor Community:
4.1 We urge all donor countries, particularly the Government of the United States, especially President Barak Obama to live up to the statements that he has made about Africa. We urge the U.S. not to use double standards. We believe the blind eye afforded to Prime Minster Meles Zenawi by the United States has resulted in strengthening repression in Ethiopia. We, therefore, demand a thorough review of the United States’ policy towards Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
4.2 We call on the Government of China to desist from assisting the Ethiopian Government’s anti democratic practices, particularly in providing technical support to block the Internet and the jamming of radio broadcasts. We also call upon the Government of China to make trade mutually beneficial.
4.3 We call upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to attend to the call for the investigation of crimes against humanity in Ethiopia.
4.4 We call upon the United States, the United Kingdom and European Union to investigate whether tax payers’ money collected during the 1984/85 in Ethiopia has indeed been used for strengthening the TPLF’s Red Army.
4.5 Let it be known that we condemn and oppose, in the strongest possible terms, all forms of extremism and terrorism.
Crystal City Virginia, United States of America, April 11, 2010.
Col. Alebel Amare talks about the newly formed armed Amhara resistance group — Amhara Democratic Force Movement — in the interview below. Col. Alebel is one of the top leaders of the group and a former deputy commander of the Agazi Army. In a phone conversation with Ethiopian Review today, Col. Alebel said that his group is working in close collaboration with the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF). Watch below:
I am writing to express my disappointment and dejection vis-à-vis your article titled “It’s time to give Ethiopia the diplomatic tools that it requires.” By any measure, your article is untimely, inappropriate, and unethical. Are you advising the current regime to hang on to power? Is it not undemocratic and high-handed for any elected official, to endorse the ruling clique before even the votes were cast and ballots have been tallied? Do you really have up-to-date information how our people in Ethiopia are dealing presently with the régime?
When in 1999 you were elected for European Parliament, I had a great appreciation for your decision to give up your highly-regarded psychiatry practice to take office in Brussels. I honestly believed at that time that you as a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists would be one of the elected officials, who will forever have a great respect for human rights of any society in our planet, including that of Ethiopians.
It is a candid statement that past policies of western governments were geared up around the idea that “strongmen” bring stability. Due to their misguided geopolitics, western countries have contributed in the past to instabilities around the world. But we are noticing at present the downside of such unwise and precarious strategy. This is due to the fact that the rulers, which were supported in the past by western governments, have become recurrently oppressive and totalitarian. It is also our recent memory that removing dictators from such countries has required quiet significant human lives and enormous material resources. Despite some progress, several regions of the world are still volatile and above all instability is a looming threat in Western-allied dictatorships that are currently embraced as bulwarks of stability.
In case of Ethiopia, it is no more hush-hush that there are widespread violations of human-rights and annihilation of self-esteem of citizens by the régime. At this instant, Ethiopians are dying from hunger and starvation; this incessant suffering of our fellow Ethiopians is breaking our heart; and absolutely unbearable for any human being. The people of Ethiopia opposite to that you may believe, being in western democracy, are living daily in trepidation and under terror from the régime. There is confrontation between the ruling party and the downhearted people in every corner of Ethiopia. Moreover, due to the discontent and harassment from the régime, there are skirmishes between the régime and several armed groups all over the country. Our unity and existence as a country is in jeopardy. I want to assure you that as noble, proud, and very tranquil people, we Ethiopians wish for ourselves a united, secured, democratic, and wealthy nation; as others do.
Don’t you believe that the innocent British geologist, who was lately shot dead in an ambush, had incorrect information about the security in Ethiopia? Is he got killed by bandits as the Ethiopian regime claims? Is Ethiopia a stable country as you may think, to send your skilled countrymen (http://www.fco.gov.uk /en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/sub-saharan-africa/ethiopia)? Aren’t you accountable as a British diplomat for not informing your citizens about security issues in any part of the world? Besides, isn’t it appropriate and valuable for you and your colleagues to help Ethiopians to build a democratic and secured nation in the currently unstable Horn of Africa?
I indisputably believe that for a stability of any country it is crucial to have a leader that is intelligent, strong, caring, and devoted to his people. Ethiopians were assiduously looking-for such a leader for several decades. Nevertheless, we were unfortunate and our effort couldn’t bear fruit. That is why; it is deplorable for us at this time to tolerate a ruler, who drove us to more misery and insecurity for more than two decades.
Other issue that I want to bring to your attention is that the régime in power, to extend its survival, is seeding detestation and driving wedges among various ethnic groups in Ethiopia; which is by far the most precarious and dangerous action that is expected only from irresponsible and immature government. As you know that, the circumstance that happened in Rwanda due to the administration in power at that time is not a distant memory. Therefore, I want you and your colleagues in the European Parliament to be aware of the state of affairs in Ethiopia. We do not need any apology in the future, either from you or your colleagues, similar to that of western diplomats’ for their silence in the face of the Rwanda genocide. We call for your support now!
Finally, I want to let you know that freedom is non-negotiable and a question of survival for Ethiopians. I have wished for myself and preferred that your article read “It’s time for western countries to help Ethiopians to build a stable, democratic, and prosperous society.” I hope you as a member of the Europe for freedom and democracy Group will agree with me that Ethiopia as a nation deserves liberty.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The European Union has agreed to monitor Ethiopia’s elections in May, nearly five years after Addis Ababa accused the EU’s chief observer in the last poll of helping to spark violence.
The U.S.-based Carter Centre declined an invitation to observe, saying there was not enough time to prepare for the May 23 vote in the impoverished nation on the Horn of Africa.
“(EU foreign affairs chief) Baroness (Catherine) Ashton last week decided to send a full observation team for the elections,” EU ambassador to Ethiopia, Dino Sinigallia, said late on Tuesday on state-run Ethiopian television.
The monitoring team will be 200-strong and have a budget of about $10 million, Sinigallia said.
Next month’s election will be the first since a government victory in 2005 was disputed by opposition parties and some observers. Monitors said the poll fell short of global standards.
Security forces killed about 200 protesters and imprisoned the main opposition leaders in the aftermath of the vote five years ago.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had accused the chief EU observer of siding with the opposition and stoking the violence.
Some critics and analysts say that the EU presence at the coming election risked legitimising a fraudulent poll, in a country of 80 million people and more than 80 ethnic groups.
“The mission won’t be able to properly observe,” one analyst, who did not want to be named for fear he would be refused entry to Ethiopia, told Reuters.
PORTSMOUTH, UK (Portsmouth.co.uk) — Geologist Jason Read, 39, died on Monday, April 5, when his military escort were ambushed in the conflict ridden region of Ogaden in Ethiopia.
Mr Read was killed and his guards wounded before they were able to return fire.
Mr Read, well known in the Portsmouth area as Justin Packham before he changed his name approximately 15 years ago, had been working in Ethiopa for a geophysics company based in Derbyshire.
In a statement, his father, Stan Packham, said: ‘Justin lived his life to the full and made many friends. He will be sadly missed by a lot of people.
‘Everyone who knew him would have a different story to tell about him.
‘He was due to come home to see Pompey play in the semi-finals, but he never made it. He was Pompey-mad and would have been so pleased to see them win.
‘He grew up in Paulsgrove as a youngster and went to the City of Boys school.
‘He was extremely close to his grandmother. Wherever he was in the world, he would always send her a postcard and a gift home.
‘Justin loved his work because he hated being out of work. We’re a very large, close family. Justin’s got three brothers and a sister, and was uncle to 11 nieces and nephews. He’s also got two step-brothers and a step-sister
‘When he was home, he adored the kids. He went to see each one of his brothers and sisters to spend time with all of them. But once he’d done that, he had to get back to work wherever it was; he hated being out of work.
‘When Justin was 18, he bought a one-way ticket to Hong Kong and slept rough for about six weeks before he got a job at the airport. He ended up driving trucks with massive wheels without even knowing how to drive. When he came back to England, he flew straight back out to Germany to work with me as a bricklayer again.
‘It takes a certain breed of worker to do the jobs he did. He’s been to Uganda, Ethiopa, Madagascar, Somalia as well as Europe with the same firm.
‘He knew what to expect from the job he was doing. The firm, Tesla IMC, has been very good. They’ve been very supportive throughout.’
