Note: This is the first installment in a series of commentaries I intend to offer on U.S. foreign policy (or lack thereof as some would argue) in Ethiopia. In this piece, I explore the human rights rhetoric in U.S. foreign policy and argue that lofty talk without action has emboldened Ethiopia’s dictators to ply their usual trade with greater audacity and made the U.S. a silent partner and a deaf-mute witness to their crimes. I urge the U.S. to back up its big human rights talk with big human rights action in Ethiopia.
Has the Mighty Eagle Turned Clucking Chicken?
Teddy “The Rough Rider” Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United States, had many faults, but one of them was not inability to distinguish between talk and action. The old warhorse understood that “Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.” Roosevelt believed the U.S. should “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Exactly a century later, appeasement seems to be the hallmark of U.S. foreign policy, at least in dealing with the world’s thugs operating gangsterdoms disguised as governments. The new American slogan appears to be: “Talk big about human rights and watch from the sidelines with folded arms as thugs and gangsters clamp their peoples’ heads in steel vises, punch them in the gut with clenched fists and hang, draw and quarter them behind closed prison walls.” Has the mighty eagle turned clucking chicken?
Steel Vises, Clenched Fists and Closing Walls
In his inaugural speech, President Barack Obama extended an open hand to the world’s thugs clad in the robes of state: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” In July 2009, in Ghana, President Obama told Africa’s “strongmen” artfully that they have been driving on the wrong side of history for so long that they are headed straight for history’s dustbin:
Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential…. History offers a clear verdict: governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable, and more successful than governments that do not…. 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 it to end… Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans [citizens and their communities driving change], and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.
In July 2010, almost exactly a year to the week of President Obama’s Ghana speech, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton gave a speech in Poland on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Community of Democracies (an intergovernmental organization of democracies and democratizing countries with a stated commitment to strengthening and deepening democratic norms and practices worldwide) and singled out Ethiopia along with Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and others to warn the world that “we must be wary of the steel vise in which governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit.” She cautioned that the “walls are closing in” on civic organizations, human rights advocates and other nongovernmental organizations that press for social change and shine a light on governments’ shortcomings. She pointed out: “Last year, Ethiopia imposed a series of strict new rules on NGOs. Very few groups have been able to re-register under this new framework, particularly organizations working on sensitive issues like human rights.”
In December 2009, Secretary Clinton delivered a speech in which she set out the basic human rights principles undergirding U.S. foreign policy in the age of thugs and gangsters masquerading as political leaders:
Throughout history and in our own time, there have been those who violently deny that truth. Our mission is to embrace it, to work for lasting peace through a principled human rights agenda, and a practical strategy to implement it…. [There are] many who hold power and who construct their position against an “other” – another tribe or religion or race or gender or political party. Standing up against that false sense of identity and expanding the circle of rights and opportunities to all people – advancing their freedoms and possibilities – is why we do what we do…. We stand for democracy not because we want other countries to be like us, but because we want all people to enjoy the consistent protection of the rights that are naturally theirs… But it is crucial that we clarify what we mean when we talk about democracy, because democracy means not only elections to choose leaders, but also active citizens and a free press and an independent judiciary and transparent and responsive institutions that are accountable to all citizens and protect their rights equally and fairly… Human rights, democracy, and development are not three separate goals with three separate agendas…. We have to tackle all three simultaneously with a commitment that is smart, strategic, determined, and long-term. We should measure our success by asking this question: Are more people in more places better able to exercise their universal rights and live up to their potential because of our actions? (Emphasis added.)
Secretary Clinton outlined the four pillars of the Obama Administration’s approach to “putting our principles into action”. She declared that U.S. policy is founded on “a commitment to human rights [which] starts with universal standards and with holding everyone accountable to those standards, including ourselves.” Accountability means “that governments take responsibility by putting human rights into law and embedding them in government institutions; by building strong, independent courts, competent and disciplined police and law enforcement.” Second, “we must be pragmatic and agile in pursuit of our human rights agenda – not compromising on our principles, but doing what is most likely to make them real. And we will use all the tools at our disposal, and when we run up against a wall, we will not retreat with resignation or recriminations, or repeatedly run up against the same well, but respond with strategic resolve…” Third, Clinton pledged to “support change driven by citizens and their communities. The project of making human rights a human reality cannot be just one for governments. It requires cooperation among individuals and organizations within communities and across borders.” Finally, she announced the U.S. “will widen [its] focus. We will not forget that positive change must be reinforced and strengthened where hope is on the rise, and we will not ignore or overlook places of seemingly intractable tragedy and despair.”
“Are more Ethiopians Better Able to Exercise Their Universal Rights and Live Up to Their Potential Because of U.S. Actions?”
Secretary Clinton said the acid test for the success or failure of U.S. foreign policy is whether “more people in more places are better able to exercise their universal rights and live up to their potential because of our actions?” By this measure, U.S. policy in Ethiopia has been a total, unmitigated and dismal failure. The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable. Meles Zenawi, the poster child of African dictatorships, has not only “closed the walls”, he has also sealed the roof and nailed shut the doors and windows on Ethiopian society. Opposition leaders are threatened, intimidated, jailed and killed. Civic society organizations are criminalized, decertified and cutoff from funding sources. Political prisoners fill the country’s jails. The country’s first and only female political party leader in history, Birtukan Midekssa, remains imprisoned for life on the ridiculous charge that she denied receiving a pardon in 2007 for her kangaroo court conviction on trumped up charges the year before. Ethiopia ranks at the top of the most corrupt countries in the world despite billions in U.S. and Western aid. In the 2010 Failed States Index, Ethiopia is ranked 17 out of 177 countries (Somalia is ranked #1 failed state). There is no freedom of speech or of the press. Journalists and human rights advocates are harassed and arrested. Independent newspapers are shuttered. Even the one-hour daily radio broadcasting service of the Voice of America (VOA) has been jammed by Zenawi’s explicit orders for the past several months in a flagrantly provocative act. Zenawi accused the VOA (the official international radio and television broadcasting service of the United States government broadcasting in 44 languages), and by implication the United States Government, as the voice of hate and genocide in Ethiopia. Zenawi said the VOA has “copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda.” According to Zenawi, the VOA has become the VOI (Voice of Interhamwe)
As to the third pillar of American foreign policy (“change driven by citizens, civic society organizations and their communities”), the evidence is flabbergasting. According to a recent report of the “Ministry of Justice” of Ethiopia, there were a “total of 3,522 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) registered before the country introduced the new law, [and] only 1,655 have so far been able to reregister while the rest (nearly 50%) vanished.”[1] The “Ministry” further reported that “out of the total 1,655 NGOs, which so far are able to be reregistered, 218 have changed their names while 17 shifted from their previous objectives to other objectives.”
Did U.S. actions help promote free and fair elections? Zenawi’s allied-party won 99.6 percent of the parliamentary seats in May 2010. Zenawi chafed publicly at the loss of the 0.4 percent and pledged resolutely: “I would like to confirm to those who did not vote for us that we will work hard to look into your reasons for not voting for us with the view to learning from them and correcting any shortcomings on our part. We will work day and night to obtain your support in the next election.” No doubt, in 2015, the vote will be 100 percent for Zenawi and his party! The European Union Elections Observation Mission, The White House and the U.S. State Department were aghast at the results and bleated: “The elections fell short of international commitments.” They could not quite bring themselves to say the “R” word. Rigged!
Are more Ethiopians today better able to exercise their universal rights and live up to their potential because of U.S. actions? (Just a rhetorical question.)
Talk is Cheap When a Toothless (Paper) Tiger Talks?
Some people cynically and pejoratively characterize U.S. human rights declarations in its foreign policy as hypocritical “cheap talk.” They argue that the U.S. would rather cluck about democracy, freedom and human rights in the abstract than do something concrete to help protect it in societies suffering under dictatorships. I disagree. American talk is not cheap because America talks with its taxpayers’ hard earned dollars. Since 1991, American taxpayers have shelled out $3.2 billion in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia.[2] Zenawi’s regime has received $26 billion in development aid from the West during the same time, the lion’s share coming from the wallets and purses of hard working American taxpayers.[3] Without American tax dollars bankrolling the dictatorship in Ethiopia, it could not last even a single day.
I will concede that American talk is cheap for the dictators in Ethiopia. For them, America is all bark, and no bite. The lofty words of President Obama and Secretary Clinton go in one ear and exit clean through the other. The U.S. can moan and groan, gripe and grouse about human rights violations in Ethiopia, but its bark is no more threatening than the growl of a toothless and clawless (paper) tiger. “They ain’t gonna do diddley-squat. Let the Americans talk until they turn blue in the face,” the dictators cackle. But America’s color is not just blue; it is also red and white. Ethiopia’s dictators see only the blue which signifies American vigilance, patience and perseverance against injustice. They don’t know what the red and white signify. It time to let them know the real meaning of the colors in the stars and stripes, President Obama! And if I may add, Sir, it is more effective to “speak softly and carry a big stick” when dealing with Africa’s tin pot dictators.
FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSSA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA
Ato Gebremedhin (formerly Aba Paulos, also commonly knows as Aba Diabilos), who claims to be the patriarch of Ethiopia, has just erected a massive statue for himself in the center of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. Aba Diabilos builds statue for himself — like Saddam Hussein — while ancient Ethiopian monasteries and churches are currently falling apart due to lack of funds. This is indeed one of the saddest moments in the history of Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
The following is a commentary regarding the statue and other developments in the Church.
Sara Al-Amoudi, the allegedly estranged daughter of Ethiopian billionaire businessman Mohammed Al Amoudi, is back in the news on British media after her 30-year-old boyfriend, Patrick Ribbsaeter, tried to attack her and stabbed her driver with a broken wine glass. Ribbsaeter appeared in court yesterday where the prosecutor called him a “gold-digger.”
A ‘gold-digging’ male model dumped by a Saudi Arabian princess after she caught him with two other women attacked her chauffeur in a rage, a court heard yesterday.
The fracas unfolded at the princess’s London flat after a night of drink and drugs, jurors were told.
Swedish model Patrick Ribbsaeter had met Sara Al-Amoudi on holiday in Thailand and the pair became lovers.
The relationship offered the promise of unimaginable wealth to Ribbsaeter, 30, who has modelled for a host of household names, including Calvin Klein, Armani, Gucci and Christian Dior.
But his hopes of a gilded future promptly disappeared when she caught him with the other women in her flat in Victoria, Central London, the court heard.
And after she dumped him, Ribbsaeter, 30, is alleged to have lunged at Miss Al-Amoudi as she slept. At this point her driver Sarkis Tokatlian stepped in to stop him, giving him a bloody nose, but Ribbsaeter smashed a wine glass and stabbed the driver six times in his face before beginning to strangle him, a jury was told.
Prosecutor Martin Whitehouse said the trial showed a world that was a far cry from the ‘idyllic, perhaps artificial’ image painted of the rich by Hello! magazine.
It was a life of ‘drinks, drugs and clubs’, he said, that was ‘in some respects, rather seedy and, of course, there’s violence’.
Pony-tailed Ribbsaeter sat in the dock at Southwark Crown Court wearing an open white shirt exposing his chest as the case against him was outlined.
Mr Whitehouse called him a ‘gold-digger’ and said that while he may appear charming and good-looking, there was another side to him.
‘He’s violent, he’s vain, he’s egocentric,’ the prosecutor said. ‘He’s also, I suggest, a liar and prone to exaggeration.’
The alleged assaults happened after Miss Al-Amoudi and Ribbsaeter went to dinner on a Saturday in September last year following her discovery of the two women.
Mr Tokatlian then drove Miss Al-Amoudi and Ribbsaeter in a Rolls-Royce to dinner, then on to a series of nightclubs, including the Ministry of Sound, before the couple returned to her flat in the early hours of Sunday. It was then that she talked about her future with Ribbsaeter and ‘realised that Patrick was, after all, not the man for her’, the prosecutor said.
Mr Tokatlian returned to the flat after dropping off the car and it became apparent that Ribbsaeter and Miss Al-Amoudi had split up.
The trio talked until Miss Al-Amoudi fell asleep. But Ribbsaeter is then said to have lunged at her, prompting the chauffeur to respond.
After the alleged glass attack, the pair struggled on the floor by the dining table until Ribbsaeter climbed on top of the victim. He grabbed his throat with both hands, and began to strangle him, stopping only when Mr Tokatlian pushed his thumbs into his attacker’s eyes, the court heard.
Mr Whitehouse said: ‘Ribbsaeter intended to cause him really serious harm and he was not acting in self-defence.
‘By the time it had got round to the strangling, Patrick Ribbsaeter had lost it. He wasn’t thinking about her. He was thinking about his future prosperity.
‘When he was found out, and realised he could not charm his way out, he reverted to his other character type – violence.’
The jury was told Ribbsaeter has a previous conviction in Sweden for strangling a different ex-girlfriend.
Ribbsaeter told the jury that Mr Tokatlian was the aggressor and that he had only defended himself.
He said he had been drinking and had taken a tiny quantity of ketamine and an ecstasy tablet while the two others had taken much more.
In interview, Ribbsaeter told police he had seen red, had ‘the strength of ten men’ and added it was a case of ‘kill or be killed’.
Ribbsaeter, of no fixed address, denies causing Mr Tokatlian grievous bodily harm with intent, the alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm, and unlawfully wounding Miss Al-Amoudi during the struggle.
The Washington-based DLA Piper, a law firm specializing in representing genocidal dictators, looters and terrorists around the world, is once again trying to silence Ethiopian Review on behalf the drunkard Ethiopian/Saudi billionaire Al Amoudi who is looting Ethiopia in collaboration with the ruling tribal junta. It is puzzling that Al Amoudi makes such an effort to silence any story about Sara Al Amoudi while he is accused of so many other serious misdeeds and he rarely reacts to any of them. It seems Sara is getting under his skin.
The following is a letter by Mary E. Gately, a lawyer for DLA Piper:
Mr Elias Kifle
Publisher, Ethiopian Review
Re: July 15, 2010 Online Article Entitled: “Mohammed Al Amoudi’s daughter back in the news
Dear Mr Kifle:
We act for Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi and family.
We have seen the article on the website www.ethiopianreview.com dated 15 July 2010 and titled ‘Mohammed Al Amoudi’s daughter back in the news’ (“Article”).
The woman referred to in the article is not the daughter of our client, and the claim made by the Ethiopian Review that the woman in question is the allegedly estranged daughter of Ethiopian billionaire businessman Mohammed Al Amoudi is entirely false.
Further, the Article is defamatory.
The Ethiopian Review was put on notice by this firm earlier this year that the allegations that “Sara Al Amoudi” is our client’s daughter were false. At that time we requested that you remove those false and defamatory allegations from the Ethiopian Review website which you initially refused to do, although we note that the publication was subsequently removed by your internet service provider. Accordingly, the current publication by the Ethiopian Review of further false allegations that “Sara Al Amoudi” is the daughter of our client is entirely unacceptable and is malicious.
We hereby reserve all of our client’s rights and remedies in relation to the publication of the Article. As an interim measure, however, and without prejudice to our client’s rights, we require that you:
1. immediately cease and permanently desist from publishing the Article and/ or any part of it that alleges or suggests that the woman referred to in the Article is our client’s daughter.
2. immediately remove the Article from the Ethiopian Review website; and
3. Provide an undertaking not to further publish or disseminate in the future any thing that alleges or suggests that the woman referred to in the Article and/ or the “Sara Al Amoudi” identified in the Article, is our client’s daughter.
We await your urgent response.
Very truly yours,
Mary E. Gately
DLA Piper, LLP
500 Eighth Street, NW
Washington DC 20004
www.dlapiper.com [email protected]
Tel: 202 799 4507
Fax: 202 799 5507
NAIROBI, Kenya — A major security operation targeting Ethiopian immigrants was conducted in Nairobi on Wednesday night where 30 Ethiopians were arrested.
Police said the operation is part of tight security measures put in place to curb crime rates in the country and guard against terrorism-related incidents.
“The operation was conducted in Pangani area where 30 Ethiopian aliens were arrested. They will appear in court today (Thursday),” Nairobi PPO Anthony Kibuchi said.
Those arrested did not posses requisite identification documents legalising their stay in the country while others were found with fake documents, according to police.
Mr Kibuchi told Capital News similar operations will be conducted in other city estates, mainly those inhabited by foreigners.
This includes Eastleigh, Hurlingham and parts of Kileleshwa.
Security in most parts of the country including border points was stepped up since Monday, a day after two bombs were detonated at two social places in Kampala, Uganda killing 74 people.
As many as 100 others were wounded in the attack which Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility.
Military Spokesman Bogita Ongeri on Monday told Capital News that security had been intensified at Kenya’s border, mainly in the Northern part of the country which borders Somalia.
“There shouldn’t be cause for alarm, our borders are secured, we have round the clock patrols there and this has been enhanced after the Kampala bombings,” Mr Ongeri said.
In Nairobi, police said they had established elaborate security measures to help counter terrorism activities and other related incidents.
This includes holding regular meetings with representatives and operators of businesses at congested areas and bus terminus which can be possible targets for terror groups.
A security meeting held in Nairobi on Wednesday evening resolved to have divisional police commanders meet with such representatives to agree on the modalities that can be used to keep their areas safe.
Places like the Muthurwa market, the Railway station and the populous Gikomba market are some of the most congested areas in the city where such meetings will be held beginning Monday, according to police.
Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) that is gaining wide popularity in Ethiopia has announced today that its broadcast is back on air after a brief interruption.
“The ESAT team has worked hard to resolve the interference problem in the past weeks,” stated a news release posted on EthSat.com.
“We would also like to thank our viewers and supporters for all encouraging phone calls and e-mail messages,” the news release added.
Frequency: 11976
Polarization: Vertical,
Symbol rate: 27.5
FEC: 3/4.
NAIROBI, Kenya — A major security operation targeting Ethiopian immigrants was conducted in Nairobi on Wednesday night where 30 Ethiopians were arrested.