ISMAILIA, Egypt — Smugglers may have killed as many as 10 Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants in an armed battle near the Egyptian-Israeli border last week and dozens more could be lost in the desert, Egyptian security sources said on Sunday.
The Sinai peninsula is a major transit route for African migrants and refugees seeking work or asylum in Israel. It also is used by smugglers to ferry narcotics and weapons into Israel and a range of goods into the besieged Gaza Strip.
At least four migrants were killed on Friday after they stole weapons from smugglers who had been holding them for ransom and tried to escape. Egyptian police later gunned down at least two more migrants trying to cross the border.
Egyptian police suspect the death toll among the migrants may be as high as 10 following Friday’s shooting, with more bodies still to be discovered, a security source who asked not to be named said.
The smugglers had been holding about 50 Ethiopians and Eritreans for ransom and dozens of the escaped migrants are still missing, the source said.
“A number of the migrants might die of thirst as many are believed to have lost their way in the desert,” the source said.
(Reuters)
The violence brings the number of migrants killed near the Egypt-Israel border this year to at least 28, up from 19 in 2009. Twenty-four of those killed this year were shot dead by Egyptian security forces and four by smugglers.
(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Dina Zayed and Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo; Editing by Michael Roddy)
By Jawar S. Mohammed
In recent years, Prime Minister Ethiopia’s genocidal tyrant Meles Zenawi has been pushing hard to signal to the West that they cannot use their leverage to pressure him into undertaking economic and political reforms that threaten his power. At times, he propagandizes his seemingly anti-imperialist “nationalism” against these so called “neoliberal” pressures. His most recent media briefing continued this anti-West rhetoric, but with a different vocabulary. He was blunt and appeared overconfident. He announced the closure of the Ethiopian embassy in Sweden, followed by a declaration that, since the economy will grow by 14.9%, Ethiopia could free itself from food aid dependence in a short five years. Whether this is Meles Zenawi’s lofty rhetoric, genuine attempt, or a shift in foreign policy directives, I believe it is an unwise blunder with far reaching consequences for everyone in the country.
Scandinavians Out, Brazil In
Ethiopia has a long, strong and productive diplomatic relationship with Scandinavian countries, and particularly Sweden, which has been among the earliest development partners of the country. In recent years this relationship has been cooling off. Yet Meles’ justification in closing Ethiopian embassy in Stockholm that “..there is no development cooperation program of any substance between us and Sweden…” is neither true nor the real reason why the embassy is being closed. First, during the over half a century long bilateral relationship between Ethiopia and Sweden, the Swedish people and government have been known for providing efficient and targeted developmental assistance. It was the Swedish people who financed the establishment of the Chilalo Agricultural Development Union (CADU) in 1967, which was the first project aimed to modernize Ethiopia’s agricultural sector. As a self-declared champion of agricultural development, the Prime Minister should have acknowledged the Swedes contribution to Ethiopia’s agricultural “modernization.” Even during his reign, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) has been the leading development partner for the country. SIDA’s support for research through the Science and Technology Commission and Universities has been crucial. Therefore, while the trade relationship might not be great, the claim that there is no significant development cooperation is baseless.
The Prime Minister also implied that the closure is a result of a shift in diplomatic focus on economic partnerships stating that “… we don’t have an embassy in Brazil. Brazil is a huge emerging country, and so we are now reassessing our diplomatic presence globally…” The notion of having diversified global diplomatic relations is obviously vital, but we do not have to shun one to please the other. Of course the point is not that we cannot run our diplomatic relations in both countries – we certainly can. The case of Brazil is presented here merely as a justification, and gives an apparently rational face to an otherwise unacceptable decision to the country’s national interest. The notion that to open an embassy in Brazil, the embassy in Sweden must be closed is not only unconvincing, but also misleading given that the embassy in Stockholm serves all Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway). Therefore, the target of this closure is not only Sweden but also the rest of Scandinavia. Since the collective economic contribution of these countries cannot be denied, only political dispute can explain the decision to close the embassy.
It’s no secret that some Scandinavian countries have been tough on the deteriorating human rights situation in Ethiopia, and have apparently tightened their stance over the past five years. They were particularly disappointed after Meles’ rubber-stamp parliament passed the Civil Society Law, which essentially disabled many non-governmental organizations in the country. After effectively killing off independent NGOs, Meles let the Scandinavians know that the only option they have was to channel their aid through the government affiliated agencies, which they obviously refused to do. Furthermore, during its presidency of the European Union, it is believed that Sweden has attempted to push the Union to pressure Meles into making democratic reforms putting them on the list of Meles’ top enemies. After the May 2010 election proved that Meles is not budging, the relationship hit rock bottom, and he is now just making the divorce official.
Ejecting the Scandinavians also serves Meles as a cheaper way of sending the signal to the West that he will not budge to any outside pressure. He knows that the Scandinavians, known for their non-interventionist stand and with little vital national interest over the region, are unlikely to tamper with his power. Taking such harsh measures against a potentially harmless target could be a cost effective way of telling other more powerful Western forces to back off.
Strengthening this warning is the declaration that the economy will grow astronomically and therefore, “Our hope and expectation is that over the next five years we’ll produce enough not only to feed ourselves but to be able to export”. In other words, the West should not dream of using aid as a leverage to challenge his increasingly totalitarian rule. I do not think Meles is foolish enough to delude himself into believing his own cooked up numbers. The real source of his overconfidence is the assumption that, with Al-shabab emerging as a serious threat, and China’s growing interest towards Africa, the West needs him more that he needs them..
Playing the East against the West
By emphasizing the shift towards strengthening ties with emerging economies such as Brazil, Meles is indicating that whatever he loses from the West, he will gain from the East, particularly China. Meles is right in a sense that, as far as economic growth is concerned, partnering with the emerging economies might be a better alternative. The West still remains paternalistic towards Africa, and no Western country truly wants to enter a mutually beneficial economic relationship with Ethiopia. In fact, America’s primary, if not only; attraction to Ethiopia is the strategic location of the country for its regional and global security. Instead of playing a positive role in helping the country pull itself from poverty and chronic conflict, the U.S. always wants to advance its security interests through aid-dependent, undemocratic surrogate regimes. That is why they did not push for real political change when the opportunities came, in 1991 or 2005 for example. Therefore, the Ethiopian people cannot count on the West to pull them out of poverty, and the emergence of China, a rising hegemony that aims to turn Africa into a market that consumes its output, could be the best bet.
However, does Ethiopia have to break away from the West in order to befriend the East? I do not believe so. Meles is thinking that he can play China against the United States in order to insulate his power from international pressure. But he is overestimating the impact of such a strategy, and as a result could be endangering the country’s interest, and perhaps even his power.
First, although investment is key to economic growth, it is not sufficient for an economy that is just starting to climb the ladder. For the foreseeable future, both budgetary and humanitarian aid will be necessary to keep the economy growing. Keeping foreign aid flowing helps to channel investment revenues back into the country’s economy rather than to divert it to humanitarian needs. In addition, without aid, a possible unexpected external shock to the economy could lead to greater crisis. Therefore, it is better to have a pragmatic approach that welcomes help from any available direction. I do not believe the pressure from the West could ever be strong enough to force Ethiopia to choose one side.
Second, some of Meles’ supporters assume that China could be the regime’s dependable guardian against any American incursion. To substantiate this assumption, they use the Burmese regime that has survived for decades despite completely antagonizing the West. But this is a gross misunderstanding. Chinese foreign policy is highly pragmatic, not ideological. Economic gain is their driving force; as such their policy decisions are based on cost benefit analysis. The Chinese economy is more interlocked with that of the U.S. than any other country. Expecting China to rescue poor Ethiopia in a case where the West’s interests are at stake would be the height of wishful thinking. Burmese survival is not the result of Chinese protection, rather a product of lack of serious U.S. rhetoric about that regime, as their economic and security interests in the country are insignificant. On the other hand, the U.S. sees Ethiopia as one of its vital national security partners. So far, Washington does not take Meles’ populist rhetoric seriously. Yet Meles should not discount the potential for someone to make a case for intervention, perhaps at least to prevent possible imitation by leaders of other countries. They would not have to match his noise in order to undertake such action. Yet more importantly, neither the U.S. nor China cares much about who leads Ethiopia. Their concern is that anyone who occupies the palace becomes their ally, and everyone who gets that chance during these times will have little logical recourse to do otherwise.
(Jawar Siraj Mohammed writes a regular political commentary on Ethiopian Politics. He can be reached at [email protected])
By James M.
The dictators of our time live by preaching dogmas such as religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, revolutionary democracy etc interwoven with practiced kleptocracy (rampant greed & corruption), misinformation, deceptions, intimidation, scare mongering, repression, extra-judicial killings etc.
Religious fundamentalism, for example, is a fertile ground for some dictators as it is for Al-Qaida. Dictators like Meles Zenawi however come to power having as their cause (illegitimate) liberation of a single ethnic group, but then pave their way to the peak of political power using all known techniques and methods that other evil dictators have been using around the world.
There are plenty of experiences to coach; such as the methods used by J Stalin-Former Soviet Union, Mao and Hu Jintao-Communist Party of China, Milosevic — Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda’s genocide, Omar al-Bashir-Sudan, Kim Jong-il-North Korea, Than Shwe-Burma, Robert Mugabe-Zimbabwe, Ahmedin Ahmadinejad-Iran etc.
History has recorded that thousands and millions of innocent people have been killed by self-imposed ruthless dictators in order to stay in the front seat of power forever. Behind the façade of their power they hide their evil acts by using ethnic differences, deceptions and all other means.
In our time, we also witness the role information technology and media has been playing (as if it is God-given gift from heaven for their manipulations), enormously helping those dictators to pursue their objectives; to misinform, fabricate, lie, intimidate, demoralize and harass the innocent population that they rule, making them helpless creatures.
With the run-up to the Election 2010 in Ethiopia, Meles negotiated a lion-share of the radio and TV air time to dominate and defeat his “enemy” (the opposition parties). Those of us who watched the pre-recorded and so called “national election debates”, have wondered how on earth radio and TV air time was distributed on the basis of current number of seats in parliament that parties hold, while the election is for a future parliament. It begs questions as to what has been the logic behind the saga and why the debates has to be held in the caged studios of the TPLF/government owned Ethiopian Television and Radio? Why free speech and freedom of expression of ideas have been harnessed, censored, controlled etc in this way? Why TPLF needed to enact laws to restrict the media? Why the debates have been full of fear and uncertainty? Where does this type of model exist in the world in the 21st Century? Why people (the electorate), I would rather call them “enslaved voters”, are deprived of knowing the truth about TPLF/EPRDF candidates’ crimes? Why the army commander has to come out with warning to name and shame and also implicate Seye’s presentation at the debates? In all these, the Ethiopian Television and Radio Organization has been the weapon that Meles needed to have absolute monopoly on, control and kill voices of the opposition groups as he wished. Meles has also showed on the ETV his predecessor’s (Mengistu’s) crimes to refresh the memories of the enslaved voters, likening the opposition groups with Mengistu. If I may ask, is this not a criminal act that Meles has committed using the ETV, the only TV channel in the country?
So many ‘questions’ so few ‘answers’ – Absolutism!
Mr Zenawi is “crafty”, “intelligent”, “clever” and determined “statesman” (borrowing Aigaforum’s words), of course, ruthless dictator who has been doing his homework to choke up any dissent that has been on his way to shake up his absolute power . His cadres and the well-connected are the blood arteries that help him keep going. So far, he indeed has been doing his job by copying the examples of other dictators, his counterparts.
The Chinese are on his side too, to do business as usual, mindless about Zenawi’s atrocities and human rights abuses. Even if the Americans are hesitant to give him aid money and so should he care? He has, of course, the bidding card in his pocket that “he is an ally against war on terror.”
The Chinese has jammed the VOA and also the DW radio frequencies for him and if the Chinese expertise is not sufficient enough, then Zenawi can also turn to the Iranian scientists and buy Satcomms jamming equipment re-vitalizing and diverting the AID money on his will? Does he care if 26 million people are in need of food in the country, so long as he can rule over the living destitute Ethiopians that have nowhere to go? Of course, they can leave the country to apply for asylum; they can be his slaves by joining his party and then vote for him or be sold to the Middle East rich guys and earn him dollar money for his coffers.
The most crucial weapon for him to appear that he is a powerful political ruler, as so many of his cronies might think, is that he is in full control of the media and national communication infrastructure. One might say how about the Army too? No doubt that he controls everything absolutely! Zenawi owns the Ethiopian Telecom, the Ethiopian Radio and Television, the national papers etc whose tasks are merely to intimidate and harass the population. These institutions are instruments of repression and are forced to be turned into:
• echo chambers of the regime,
• distortion and deception centers,
• propaganda and agitating machinery for the Zenawi party,
• megaphone of political exaggerations of the TPLF,
• centers for opinionated information.
Furthermore, the staff of these institutions is compelled to practice rhetorical journalism and disseminating redundant information to cover-up for government misdeeds and atrocities. Birtukan Mideksa’s arrest is a classical example where the Justice Ministry on the ETV has read the announcement of her re-arrest quoting that “she had given an interview to the foreign media regarding her pardon”[4], whereas Birtukan hadn’t done so in Sweden, on this topic, just had answered a question from a curious audience regarding the issue. The ETV type of worst journalism is a well documented fact by many and so citing other examples of wide scale fabrications would become beyond my blurb.
Have the West Started to See the Copycat?
It is this long-time process of Zenawi’s ruthless and bizarre behavior that the West have started to see as the alarm bells go off all over their Mind set and now they are starting in earnest to criticize his atrocities, however very late. The Human Rights Watch, Amnesty Intl, State Department, the White House, the Crises Group, the UK Foreign Office, Diplomats, the BBC, Reuters, the Economist, etc have woken up to do their fair share of disclosing, condemning the atrocities and of course are also “concerned” about the process of “Election” 2010 in Ethiopia, that was “marred by intimidation and absence of level playing field.” [EU EOM, Report, May 23, 2010]
It is worth to bring to the attention of any normally thinking person that Meles is a copycat. His cadres have been studying the Chinese model of development/dictatorship (Revolutionary-China, coupled with few hints of Western democracy) and jamming tricks, and now they are concatenating the Iranian model of jamming radio frequency spectrum in the air.
In May, 2009, The Islamic Republic of Iran jammed the frequencies of the global broadcasters [1] – the BBC, Deutsche Welle (DW) and Voice of America (VoA). Though Iran is both a member of the United Nations and a member of also the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), that did not hinder them from scattering the frequencies of those Trio that provide balanced world-wide news services.
Iran’s action went against the ITU’s constitution, i.e. Article 45 — “Harmful Interference” — states clearly that, among other things:
the Member States recognize the necessity of taking all practicable steps to prevent the operation of electrical apparatus and installations of all kinds from causing harmful interference to the radio services…” [ITU – Chapter VII Special Provisions for Radio]
Though the big broadcasters begged Iran to lift its provocative jamming actions, Ahmadinejad’s government refused to co-operate. Reasons? The Western Democracy is “disseminating a “destabilizing propaganda using their broadcasting agencies” (paraphrased). This is the phrase used also by Zenawi, boldly, in response to a Western journalist who asked him a question regarding the jamming of the VOA Amharic service.
Paris-based Eutelsat is now “unable to conduct normal and licensed satellite operations that enable it to deliver these services in Iran using its Hotbird satellite.”[1]
So what is Zenawi’s fault if the Western Democracy (Liberal Democracy) is hesitant to act and punish Iran? As a dictator, what makes him different if he employs the AID money (at least Iran has oil) to jam the VOA and then the satellite TV launched by the like-minded Ethiopians, calling it (ESAT)? One could also ask, is it really “the ESAT” that means FIRE in Amharic that disturbs Zenawi’s mind, for what we know he uses his own one to punish the people anyway.
The Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), apparently, has as its objective providing balanced views and giving the Ethiopians an alternative channel to the information media as opposed to a single state-owned media, which Meles could have even supported. Isn’t he a “statesman” meant to lead the African nations and “negotiate” on behalf of Africa for fairness at World stage? So, shall we now conclude with certainty that he is rather an evil clown that teaches the children bad things? Is ESAT going to be a threat to Meles, and his ministers the likes of Bereket Simon (Communication Minister), Shimeles Kemal (Government Spoke’s Person), Abadula/Minase (President of Oromia State) etc? The answer as obvious as it might be is a resounding yes!!
Did We Get the Message?
In summary, it is obvious that in addition to other methods employed, Meles has used the media to pre-determine the election 2010 in Ethiopia. The Chinese have blocked all websites that carry any criticism to the dictator’s rule, using firewalls and Internet filtering tools. He has tormented, and terrorized the Addis Neger paper editors forcing them to flee the country. Forced the Awramba times paper’s editor to resign in fear of prosecution.
Using the boxing metaphor, the election has been conducted in an environment where the oppositions groups with their hands tied up behind their backs, their legs fastened together, their eyes be folded; while dictator Meles with all his body free got his punches, and has knocked the opposition groups out of the ring. It then only remained him to come out for a press conference later, to announce that oppositions must learn from him for the next round of election, but now they must accept his victory… else they have to be prepared to face the consequences. Profesor Merera and Dr Beyene of MEDREK (the most outspoken critics of his rule) are on his target we have heard, and they must have received his warnings by now. Acting in such a way, Meles has nicely mirrored his predecessor, Mengistu Haile-Mariam. Mengistu also had won an election in a landslide victory! The only difference is that they lived in different times.
The eccentric Zenawi (certainly clown and eccentric) once more has raped election in the home front. His next move has been a fast strike at Observers (EU EOM), NGOs, civil society institutions, oppositions and their supporters and also the free media that includes the big players. So, the Dictator works by example (Iran this time), whatever the cost may be: BLOCK…BLOCK, JAM Baby JAM!!! JAM VOA, JAM DW, JAM ESAT!!!
(The author can be reached at: [email protected])
