San José, California from March 12 to March 14, 2010
The aim of the conference is to bring together Ethiopian and Eritrean scholars and academicians from around the world to discuss ways and means of healing past conflicts and building future relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The conference is open to the public and all interested individuals or parties are encouraged to attend.
Guest speakers include:
Professor Tesfatsion Medhanie, Bremen University, Germany
Professor Daniel Kendie, Henderson University, Arkansas
Professor Assefa Mehretu, Michagan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
Professor Admasu Bezabih, Golden Gate University, Oakland, California
Professor Mesfin Araya, City University of New York, New York
Professor Adugnaw Worku, Pacific Union College, Napa, California
Mr. Obang Metho, Winnipeg, Canada
Dr. Aregawi Berhe, The Hague, Netherlands
Dr Abeba Fekade, Alexandria, Virginia
Mr. Yussuf Yassin, Oslo, Norway
Dr Fikre Tolosa, Oakland, California
Dr Demissie Oluma, Mercede, California
Mr. Zewge Fanta, Seattle, Washington
Mr. Saleh Johar, Bay Area, California
Mr. Abebe Gelaw, Mountain View, California
Mr. Jawar Mohammed, Washington, D.C.
For more information contact:
Abebe Gelagay, Ethiopian-Eritrean Friendship Committee
Tel: 408-504-1674 or 408-646-8044 or 408-874-5168
In mid-January, the ailing Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) declared once again that it is in need of rescue fund. The business weekly, Addis Fortune, reported that the bank called on the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) to inject more capital to refill its empty cash registers.
Though the health of all state banks has been in dramatic decline within the last ten years, crisis-ridden DBE has been in much more serious trouble carrying a huge burden on its shoulders in the form of non-performing loans. Much of these loans are taken out by crooked “borrowers” like the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT), which is infamous for defaulting on the multi-billion birr loans it has been raking out from state banks. [EFFORT is now under the control of Meles Zenawi’s wife, Azeb Mesfin.]
In mid-December, Addis Fortune reported that DBE “loaned” a whopping 1.7 billion birr ($141.6 million) to a privileged company, Messebo Cement Factory, one of the many companies owned by EFFORT. Messebo’s business plan was an expansion project, to build a second factory that will extend its market monopoly in the cement business. “The money, 96 million in euro [141.6 million dollars], has been obtained entirely as a loan from the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE); only 15 percent of this money was required in local currency,” the paper reported.
“The civil work has been completed. The machinery are now coming from China,” Brehanu Werede, acting general manager of the project, boasted.
But the interesting twist in the story is the fact that while ailing DBE has been on the verge of collapse, its incompetent management team and board, filled with the ruling TPLF loyalists and hirelings, clearly flouted the basic rule of banking by approving EFFORT’s greedy loan applications.
As a result of its crisis, cash strapped DBE has been unable to finance essential and productive entrepreneurial projects. It is turning down loan applications from serious entrepreneurs that have little political and ethnic leverage, while funnelling meagre resources to a borrower that has been deliberately confusing loans with grants.
Even more surprisingly, it happened at a time when DBE has once again pressed the red button for rescue injection from the national treasury. It doesn’t make sense to undertake such a mammoth expansion project on the part of Messebo at a time when the cement market is predicted to reach a saturation point with the opening of a dozen of new factories including Sheik Mohammed Al-Amoudi’s Derba Midroc Cement Factory, which is expected to start production at the end of this year.
DBE has a long but difficult history. Over one hundred years ago, the founder of the first bank in Ethiopia, Emperor Menelik II (1844-1913), realized the critical role banks play in development endeavours. When Emperor Menelik inaugurated Bank of Abyssinia on February 15, 1906, he undoubtedly envisioned it to grow, multiply and serve generations to come. That bank played a critical role to push his modernization agenda. It is also credited for financing the construction of the only railway line in Ethiopia, the Ethio-Djibouti railway, which currently finds itself on the verge of extinction.
Emperor Menelik had also set up another bank, solely committed to enhancing development and trade by providing badly needed financial facilities, despite the fact that resources were extremely meager. In 1909, the emperor launched the Societe Nationale d’ Ethiopie Pour le Development de l’ agriculture et de Commerce (The Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Trade).
Since its establishment, the bank has undergone major restructuring and re-naming at least eight times. During the reigns of HaileSelassie and Mengistu Hailemariam, the bank did not register any dramatic growth nor faced critical illness. After the fall of the Derg, the bank saw dramatic changes as its non-performing loans had reportedly reached as much 94 per cent. In 2003, it was re-established as the Development Bank of Ethiopia. In July 2009, the bank declared that it completed the controversial Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) which has been allegedly used to push the agenda of the ruling elite to tighten its monopolistic grip on every key institution in the country.
It is an open secret that the Development Bank of Ethiopia has been experiencing more difficulties under the Meles regime than its predecessors. The main cause of its dire problems, as mentioned above, is related to the fact that the amount of loans it disburses and the amount it recovers have been showing a widening gap that cannot be easily filled with capital injections from external and internal sources.
According to the data obtained from the bank, from 1972 to 2009, DBE disbursed 13.3 billion birr in loans but could only collect 8.39 billion birr from borrowers. Laden with heavy burden of debts, the bank is making recurrent loan requests from internal and external sources. In fact, had the bank been in healthy condition, borrowing from external and internal sources would not have been a problem due to the fact that the bank was set up to operate as such.
Under normal circumstances, no bank in any part of the world will ever lend money to any borrower with terrible credit history. But the crooked client called EFFORT is a powerful part of the establishment being run by senior TPLF officials, including the Prime Minister’s wife, Azeb Mesfin, who has been appointed by her husband to control EFFORT’s multi-billion business empire.
No state bank official can dare say “No” to any amount of “loan” requests, no matter how outrageous it could be, to the Queen of Mega and her entourage. Obviously, a bank official handpicked by Meles can hardly be expected to refuse to oblige whenever his wife demands a loan or grant be issued, no matter how much or whether it is in local or hard currency. In fact, thanks to the unlimited power accorded to the tyrant’s wife, she has been known to employ real politik to get whatever she desires.
Dr. Seid Hassan, Economics and business Professor at Murray State University pointed out the fact that he had even come across credible complaints about Azeb Mesfin’s underhanded business activities including using her power and influence to force potentially competitive entrepreneurs to “sell” their start-ups to her or her business partners in order to enable her various companies and “joint ventures” to enjoy market dominance.
Last year, DBE celebrated its 100th anniversary in the presence of Zenawi’s octogenarian figurehead, President Girma Woldegiorgis, who recently celebrated his 86th birthday. As the celebration was in high tempo, interesting figures that were rarely made public were released by the officials.
One of the most eye-catching figures came from Abay Weldu, TPLF Executive Committee member as well as Deputy President of the State of Tigray, and DBE Northern Region Manager, Hadush Gebregziabher. At the bank’s diamond jubilee, both of them excitedly disclosed that since the fall of the Derg, the bank loaned over 3 billion birr to Tigray region, i.e. EFFORT and its affiliate business projects, as reported by TPLF’s own media outlet, Walta Information Centre.
What makes the story much more interesting is the fact that from 1970 to 2009, the bank loaned 13.2 billion birr to private businesses and government projects. Out of the total outlay disbursed in four decades, it was learnt that the bank loaned nearly 8.5 billion birr since the fall of the Derg, which was 19 years ago. That makes TPLF the biggest beneficiary of the “loan” bonanza taking the lion’s share, i.e. nearly 40 per cent of loans, from the struggling bank, and its other external and domestic sources of capital, including the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and the National Bank of Ethiopia.
In addition to the 3 billion birr plus loan, Messebo Cement Factory was recently awarded 1.7 billion birr (147.6 million US dollars). That simply means that in the last 19 years, the TPLF and its ethnic affiliates took out over 4.7 billion birr of fund from the coffers of DBE, not to mention other states banks that are also victims of TPLF money grab scheme.
TPLF companies are currently undertaking “expansion” projects with funding from struggling state banks. But it is quite obvious that the funding should have been allocated fairly and equitably to finance serious development projects throughout Ethiopia including underserved and neglected regions.
In fact, there is also an incredible and outrageous twist to this saga. DBE reportedly had planned to lend around 2.4 billion birr this fiscal year. Of the 2.4 billion birr, 1.7 billion birr has already been granted to Messebo’s so-called expansion project. In other words, the privileged Messebo has been allowed to take well over 70 percent of the total outlay allocated this year to finance businesses and public projects in the whole of Ethiopia, while DBE has fallen in the habit of dialing for emergency services and rescuers. This huge inequality gap in TPLF’s Ethiopia clearly symbolizes Meles Zenawi’s ideology of gangster capitalism that has been designed to benefit only a selected few members of the ethnic junta in power.
As the TPLF leadership has been consistently claiming, EFFORT does not belong to the people of Ethiopia. Abadi Zemu, Sebhat Nega and even Gebru Asrat, who claims to be struggling against Meles Zenawi’s injustice have shamelessly claimed that EFFORT belongs to anyone with Tigrian blood as if being a Tigrian was a privilege to own multiple companies without any contributions. They are telling us that the business empire, which enjoys a huge array of privileges including unrestricted loans, exemption from external auditing, exemption from paying taxes, belongs only to the people of Tigray despite the fact that the EFFORT conglomerate is completely under the control of Meles, his wife and his closest cronies like Abadi Zemu, Arkebe Ekubay, Yohaness Ekubay, Getachew Belay, et al.
In a recent interview with VOA’s reporter Girmay Gebru, Abadi Zemu, who is the CEO of EFFORT and Executive Committee member of the TPLF, has said that Messebo Cement Factory already commands 40 per cent of the cement market in Ethiopia. Messebo was set up in 1995 with a registered capital of 240 million birr. It is puzzling why DBE approved Messebo’s 1.7 billion birr loan in foreign exchange to construct a second factory at a time when businesses are closing down due to severe shortages of hard currency and loan facilities.
It was just a few months ago that the international media jokingly reported about Ethiopia’s Coca-Cola drought as the East African Bottling Company, which was forced to suspend production of the global brand and laid off its employees as the state banks claimed to have run out of their foreign exchange reserves. Tens of thousands of business owners, especially those engaged in the import sector, have been seriously affected by the foreign exchange crunch.
The repeated firing and hiring of senior management officials within the last decade also reveal that DBE’s future has been uncertain and shaky. The bank has also been subjected to scathing criticism for being too generous on risky loans to EFFORT and failing to insist on repayment with interests in time. No matter where the bank is going, the fact that TPLF is draining state banks to undertake its discriminatory, monopolistic and illegal business projects will remain a thorny issue, and even a source of future conflicts for generations to come as the ongoing looting and corruption is too naked and unprecedented in the history of the poor nation.
An endangered species is a population of organisms that is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. The free-press journalists in Ethiopia fit such description. The definition is true on both points. Our journalists are becoming extinct because of the draconian laws passed by the minority government and the predatory nature of the TPLF regime. The number of Independent publications is close to zero whereas the threat from the minority based TPLF regime has grown exponentially.
I was going to mention the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the different articles such as Article 29 of the Ethiopian Woyane Constitution that supposedly protect the citizen from the long arm of the state. But all that really don’t make sense in a totalitarian state. Words are stripped of their meaning in a police environment. The slogan ‘what you see is what you get’ is an attempt to show there is no trickery but in Ethiopia it means the exact opposite. Department of Public Security is the fountain of public insecurity, Ministry of justice is the breeding ground for injustice, Defense Department is where aggression against neighbors is formulated and the Communication Office is where lies and defamation is concocted.
So this last week it was the turn of another independent paper to be hounded out of existence. Addis Neger became the latest victim of the illegal regimes attempt to dim the flow of information. Why we are surprised is very perplexing. Is this an isolated incident is a very good question. Isn’t it another of the many humiliations dished on us? What did we do when we were confronted by the previous injustice? Big fat nothing is the answer. What are we going to do this time around other than having a leisurely conversion while sipping our morning coffee? I see another nothing around the corner.
There are three predictable responses that have become our trademark. One is silent condemnation of Woyane while feigning surprise. The second is blaming the editors of Addis Neger for going too far and angering the power to be. Those in the third category have the chutzpah to condemn the exiled journalists for leaving the country instead of staying and confronting the regime.
Despite our indifference the Woyane policy has real victims. Due to the decisions made by the Prime Minster and those around him real people pay the price. The closure and elimination of Addis Neger is another instance in the life of the independent press in Ethiopia. Moged, Muday, Urgi, Tobia, Maebel, Fiameta, Mebrek, Goh, Ruh, Tomar, Ethiop, Ethiopis, Zegabi, Askual, Tikuret, Admas, Express, Menilik, Satenaw, Aemiro, Feleg, Dink, Agere, Damotra, Hilina, Seyfe Nebelbal etc. etc. etc. are a few of the victims of TPLF injustice. You see these are not just names of News Papers. There were real people behind them. People with families that cared for them, people with dreams of informing their fellow citizens and people that worked hard saved and established a thriving enterprise. The papers were shut down by the regime. Do you wonder what became of the people?
Some were murdered. Some are still in prison. A good many were scattered around the globe. Kenya, Yemen, Egypt, South Africa Europe and USA are where they dislocated. No one enters the news business to make money and get rich. Our journalists are the truest of professionals in every sense of the word. They play hide and seek with Woyane tugs endangering their lives and the lives of those around them because they love the truth and they love their country. So many of them have been imprisoned, abused, beaten and humiliated but they are back on their desk the following working day. It has been said that their terrorizes envy the reporters dedication. All that is being done to them is part of our glorious history. It is written with blood. I will give you a few examples as told by my friend Ato Dawit kebede of Fiameta, himself a victim of TPLF injustice. I thank Dawit for giving me permission to quote extensively from a plea he made regarding the plight of our journalists back in 2007.
There is Ato kifle Mulat, the President of the Ethiopian Free Press who was thrown in jail because his association wrote demanding the release of Urgi editors. The court decided Urgi editors to be sympathizers of OLF that is considered to be a ‘terrorist’ group. Ato Kifle was asked to retract the statement or go to prison. He spent many months in Jail. He is now in exile.
There is Eskinder Nega who was publisher of the successful paper ‘Ethiopis’. Eskinder and his editor in chief, the late Tefera Asmare were jailed with made up charges and the paper was closed. Upon his release Eskinder established ‘Habesha’ in English that became popular among the diplomatic community. Addis voice’s Abebe Gelaw was Habesha’s editor in chief at that time; their biting articles and successful cartoons made them famous. One of Eskinder cartoons that depicted the Eritrean President as a snake did not go well with the TPLF cadres and Eskinder was taken to ‘maekelawi’ jail and confined in the famous room # 7. After a few days without food and water; one late night his jailers took him out and tortured him in a separate room for hours. They beat him up badly including his writing hand. He was released and the case dropped when TPLF went to war with their former friend.
There is Zegeye Haile owner and editor of Genanaw who has the misfortune of reporting on the unsuccessful attempt to kill Mengistu in Zimbabwe. Zegeye report the informed speculation that the attempt was made by Eritrean intelligence. He was prosecuted for defaming the good name of Eritreans; fined ten thousand bir and banned for two years from writing.
There is Dawit Kebede of Fiameta who wrote an investigative piece on a certain police colonel. He was hauled to jail because his publication included a picture of police insignia. That was enough to land him and his brother in jail in wereda 10 where they train police dogs. Being terrorized by dogs trained to kill was the punishment he encountered.
The editor Aklilu Tadesse was brought to court because he wrote regarding the existence of an organized opposition group in northern Shoa. He was charged for fabricating a story and the prosecutor demanded a two years jail term. The same day, in the same courthouse Professor Asrat was being charged for organizing an army in northern Shoa.
There is Abera Wegi of Maebel that reported on the curious covering of Yekatit 12 martyr’s monument. He wrote an investigative piece regarding Woyanes crime of erasing a few key words from the monument.
“ቢነገር፣ ቢወራ፣ ቢተረክ ቢጻፍ፤
ፍጻሜ የለውም፤ የፋሺስቶች ግፍ።”
Those words were removed from our monument. Abera Wegi was right and paid the price in Kerchele Prison.
In the aftermath of the famous 2005 general election several Ethiopian journalists were victims of Woyane terror. We will remember Serkalem Fasil who gave birth in a dirty rat infested jail her husband Eskinder Nega, with Sisay Agena, Dereje Habtewold, Fasil Asefa, Fasil Yenealem, Feleke Tibebu, Nardos Meaza, Mesfin Tesfaye, Andualem Ayalew, Wenag Seged Zeleke, Dawit Kebede and Dawit Fasil.
What is happening is just a continuation of eighteen years of crime against the Ethiopian people. Our journalists are a glaring example of the abuse of power by the minority-based government.
Our journalists did their part to tell the Ethiopian people the truth so they will be able to make an intelligent decision. They did not do it for fame or glory. They saw their friends being killed, hunted like wild animals, tortured to make them deny the truth, their property being confiscated and ultimately exiled from their home and country. It requires a person of strong will and unselfish character to withstand such injustice. It is a testimonial that there are still some left imbued with that heroic Ethiopian character that puts country ahead of personal gain. It is a strong indictment against all of us that dwell on our petty differences instead of our collective strength. Our journalists are holding a mirror forcing us so we can truly see our selves and question our commitment to the truth, justice and a united and free Ethiopia.
This is not an attempt to lament what is lacking but to see what is possible when individuals are held accountable for their actions. When we see the strength and resolve of our journalists shouldn’t we all ask ourselves what is required of me to save my people and country? Shouldn’t the question be what is good for the many instead of what do I gain from this? Those of us outside are truly lucky. We are spared from watching the crimes of ordinary cadres against our people; we are shielded from witnessing the hunger of our elders for one meal a day, the plight of our sisters on their hopeful attempt to go where danger awaits them, the hopelessness of our little brothers reduced to drug consumption to forget.
Addis Neger is our humiliation. Addis Neger is our call to action. Addis Neger should anger all of us. It is time we channel our anger and work collectively to overcome injustice. It is time we wholeheartedly support those who are fighting on our behalf. It is not about what happened yesterday, but rather what is possible tomorrow.
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech Mr. Obama said:
“Make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies.”
Something to think about. May the Ethiopian god safeguard our recent exiles and protect their loved ones left behind.
One may wonder if Meles Zenawi will ever wish the people of Ethiopia happiness, freedom from his endless tyrannical rule and a future of hope. At a time when Ethiopians have been preoccupied with efforts to receive the new Ethiopian year with a sense of hope and jubilation, not because of any tangible change but for the sake of at least their unique calendar and the end of the dreary rainy season, Meles Zenawi had a different game plan. When he convened a meeting of his loyalists, it was predictable that he had no plan of any good wishes for the poor nation he has been ravaging with his misrule.
After all Meles is a classic tyrant whose cruelty is undisputed. According to Wikipedia, the word “tyrant” carries connotations of a harsh and cruel ruler who places his or her own interests or the interests of a small oligarchy over the best interests of the general population, which the tyrant governs or controls.
Despite his best effort to try to fool the people, the majority is too wise to be cheated. But there were at least some gullible folks who took the absolute monarch’s pranks seriously and thought that he would abdicate his absolutist throne and deliver a great resignation message on the New Year. “He will go. It is a done deal!” they argued. But it turned out that Zenawi’s plan was nothing more than an unsophisticated cruel April fool’s day hoax in September [Meskerem], the first month in the Ethiopian calendar.
Stopping an insurrection
Before its melodramatic end, Meles Zenawi’s resignation gamesmanship has a long history. It started in the aftermath of the 2005 national elections. After stealing the elections and smashing the popular demand for democracy and freedom, Meles appeared on BBC’s HARDtalk with Stephen Sacker. The interview was not as easy as the monologue he scripts for ETV and Walta. Meles was palpitating and visibly stressed.
Zenawi’s agony was quite understandable as the questions were forthright and there was little space to evade the uncompromising BBC interrogator who even managed to extract a confession that he ordered his security forces to open fire on unarmed protesters.
“What order did you give the security forces?” asked Mr Sacker.
“Stop the insurrection!” declared Meles.
“As simple as that!”
“Yeah!” said the dictator triumphantly as if he ordered the killing of some flies.
The game of the president
The usually cunning despot was caught red-handed lying a few times. He even tried to convince the BBC sharp man that the person who formed the electoral board was not him but the “president” of the country. This was to make Sacker and BBC viewers believe that he was in power only for two terms.
“The National Election Board, the current board, was appointed over a decade ago, during the transitional period, and at that period, at that time, the president submitted the names to the parliament. Now if we were to appoint new election board members, it would be the prime minister, which would put the names to the parliament.”
Bemused with his answer, Stephen asked the self-anointed Prime Minister: “Where were you at that particular time?”
“I was the president of the Transitional Government,” Meles answered blinking his eyes helplessly. So finally, it was discovered that the “president” was no one other than Zenawi himself. The street smart despot never surrenders.
“You were the president?” asked Mr Sacker as if he was surprised.
“Yes!”
“So you still put forward the names?”
“Yes, I did.”
“And you now expect the opposition to believe this Board would be entirely impartial? Then Meles resorted to comparing his anomalous empire to a normal country. “Well, I suppose the opposition parties in France expect their Minister of Interior to be impartial in elections and I suppose it is very similar in your country?”
“But I suppose in most countries it would be unusual for one man to be in power for so long, and would control all the appointments for so long?”
“This is my second term and I…” said Meles again trying to pull the wool over Mr Sacker’s eyes.
“You just told me you were the president of the interim transitional authority before?”
“Yeah, the transitional period.”
“So in essence, you have been in power for 14 years.”
“Is that unheard of in Europe?” asks the tyrant to make an escape route.
In the middle of the dramatic interview in which Meles was cornered, the issue of resignation was raised. Meles’ answer was simple, “That is up to my party to decide!” He went on to say: “I want the office to serve my country and I will only serve if I feel…I have value to add. Likewise, if my party feels I don’t add value, they can change the prime minister any time.”
Since that bad encounter with Mr Sacker, who further revealed the mind of a typical power monger in front of the whole world, Mr Zenawi insisted that it would be his last term and he would submit his resignation to his party, as if the “party” composed of his “yes-men” will ever have a power to decide on his fate.
Had had enough
On December 14, 2006, Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post published another interesting interview with Zenawi in which he boldly declared that he was deeply convinced that “we either democratize and have a good chance of surviving, or if we fail to do so, we disintegrate.” At the end of the interview McCrummen asked, “Do you have any plans to try a third term?” He tried to evade the question again by diverting it to his party.
“My party? My party will try not only for a third term but for a tenth term.”
“And you personally?” fired back McCrummen knowing what he was up to.
“And me personally, I think I have had enough,” Zenawi said. Here again anyone can notice his self-doubt and caprice. The sentence was not fully affirmative as he opened the sentence with “I think….” If he had had enough, why did he say I think? Just a fool’s game of self-deception.
He continued to sing the resignation song and his blind supporters continued to dance to the tune tirelessly. And yet he kept on giving conflicting signals until many of the respected global news outlets echoed his propaganda. They declared that Zenawi was likely to set an example not only in Ethiopia but also in Africa by relinquishing power in a civilized manner.
Got bored with resignation
In June 24 of this year, Meles told reporters another interesting story. In a news dispatch under the headline Meles bored with resignation talk, the global newswire service Reuters reported that the tyrant was bored with the expectation and talks of his departure.
According to Reuters, asked when he would go at a news conference, “Meles, who has been hinting at an exit for several years, replied: “I am bored with that question. Even if you are not bored, I am.”
But Tsegaye Tadesse and Barry Malone got it wrong again by quoting another gullible but unnamed analysts. “Analysts believe Meles is most likely to leave after the 2010 election, with the ruling party probably winning again and the prime minister’s post then passing to a senior minister,” they reported. Misreading the signals, a Barry Malone of Reuters even distributed a list of possible successors: Seyoum Mesfin, Girma Biru and Tedros Adhanom added with a list of opposition figure most of whom were victims
Setting a new example
Though Meles declared his boredom over talks of his resignation in front of reporters, he told William Wallis, FT Africa Editor, a few days earlier that in Addis Ababa June 17th that he was going to set a new example.
“Is there a danger though that your liberation movement could go the way of some others on the continent which have over time lose their original ideals and are prey to cronyism and the pursuit of power for its own sake rather for the sake of the people?” Wallis asked.
“Absolutely! There is no guarantee. Every movement will have to renew itself everyday or risk degenerating.”
“Including changing leadership?” Wallis wondered.
“Absolutely!” Zenawi said.
“You have said before you are willing to stand down? What developments are there on this front?
He argued at length that his party will change the old leadership and “renew” itself with a new kind of leadership.
Another serious question followed: “Are you saying that you won’t be standing in the elections next year?”
“All I am saying is that my personal position is that I have had enough. I am not a lone gunman…. So I am arguing my case and the others are also arguing their case.… I would like to keep my party membership even after I resign from my government position. My hope is we will come up with some understanding. I don’t think the differences are all that big.”
“When might that take place? Is there a party congress coming up?”
“Yes there is a congress in September,” Meles declared making it appear that there is a real party with real members with unsold souls with rights to debate with him.
“Who would you like to succeed you?”
“I would like the party to make that decision.”
“Why is it that Ethiopians don’t really believe you could go?” Wallis queried with interest.
“Because it has not been done in the past in Ethiopia.”
“But this is a precedent you would like to set?”
“This is a precedent that I would almost kill to set.” From what he was saying, it seemed he can’t wait to go and leave alone the country he has been messing up for lover three decades.
A bad hoax
“And what will you do when you eventually step down? I gather you haven’t had a holiday for 34 years.”
The tyrant answered: “I think my preference would be to read, perhaps write, but again that will be a decision for the party. One thing that I will not do, one thing that the party should not consider is be involved in any government work.”
“You will withdraw?”
“That is a necessary condition and without that there is no change of leadership. But once we have done that the party will have its decision as to whether I will be allow [sic] to sit back read and write, or give me other party (role).”
“Like party chairman?”
“I don’t think so because the prime minister has to be the party chairman. That is not a position for a retired leadership,” Meles answered knowing full well that he was just playing a game that he has perfected: a game of self-deceptions. After all tyrants like Meles are narcissist creatures who are too predictable to cheat anyone but themselves.
As predicted again, the resignation game came full circle. Meles convened his “party”. When the two-day “conference” was over we were told that EPRDF accepted Meles Zenawi’s resignation. “The council has passed decision the senior leaders of the front and management would hand over its leadership in the coming five years. The council has examined the resignation request of EPRDF Chairperson, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and decided to put in to effect as per the procedure of the Front after five years,” the TPLF-controlled Ethiopian News Agency reported. That was not the end of the story.
“We have made a decision about all our frontline leaders, not just Prime Minister Meles Zenawi,” Muktar Kedir, chief of headquarters for the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), told Reuters on Wednesday.
“They will all resign within five years. We will consider his request again then,” he said after the EPRDF’s annual congress this week. Muktar must be kidding. The election is over EPRDF is going to enjoy another landslide victory because it is just a periodic exercise to impress donors. Meles has been begged to stay in power and he is going to be his own predecessor, the one he was promising all these years to transfer power to. What an impressive trick!
Meles Zenawi seems to be like a man who has been trying to build a fortress of ice in the middle of the Tropics. Unfortunately, his efforts are vain and his games too silly. The reason why Zenawi will cling to power for ever is the fact that he has not built a country for himself and his children. There is so much at stake. After all, the nation is a milk cow for him and the ethnic oligarchy he created.
The truth of the matter is that the wicked dictator has little choices. Very few tyrants like himself will take him as a guest of honor. Zimbabwe is already occupied by his predecessor. His long time mentor Isaias Afewerki will need his head on a platter if he flees to his mother’s country, Eritrea, a country he liberated from Ethiopian colonialism. The Sudanese tyrant Al Bashir may take him but the trouble is he is being hunted by the International Criminal Court, which is also compiling files against Zenawi. Where can he flee to escape justice? China, Burma may be Libya? For tyrants like Zenawi, the options are quite limited in the real world as he will be forced to confront the mountain of truth and the grips of justice.
Zenawi rebuilt Ethiopia on a quicksand, on a foundation of divide and rule. When the wall comes crushing on him, it will wipe out the whole criminal enterprise. Expecting Meles to go on his own volition is waiting for a miracle to happen. After all, he is a man who has been sowing the chaff of hatred and division across the fields and over the mountains and telling the people to collect the harvest of peace and democracy.
What is sad this time round is not the cruel game but the fact that the despot chose to play his moronic April fool’s day hoax on a New Year, a time of hope, change and expectation. In spite of the fact that Meles also plays such a game for the consumption of some naïve funders who sponsor his tyranny, knowingly or unknowingly, the joke is cruel beyond the pale. Whether Zenawi likes it or not, change is inevitable and freedom and democracy will come eventually, not out of kindness of ruthless tyrants like him but out of the human march toward the unyielding path of freedom. Sooner or later, Meles will take his guaranteed place in the dustbin of history along with Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mobutu, Id Amin, Pol Pot…and all the known evil men who have caused a great deal of destruction and horror.
We wish fellow Ethiopians in and outside of the country a year of hope, courage, change and unity. Let us forget the dictator’s cruel hoax and enjoy the New Year festivities. On such an occasion, it is also important to think of heroes and heroines who have fallen and made great sacrifices in jails and torture chambers for freedom’s sake. We need to pay tribune to our future leaders, those true Ethiopians like Birtukan Mideksa who have offered themselves as sacrificial lambs so that Ethiopians will one live in abundant freedom and dignity. Their sacrifice and suffering is not in vain. We should always remember that resistance against tyrants is obedience to God, as Thomas Jefferson said. Intensifying the resistance in unison against tyranny setting aside the petty bickering cannot be postponed.
(The above articles is released by Forum for Rights and Equality in Ethiopia (FREE), a new advocacy group under formation that aims to campaign for freedom, democracy and justice founded on basic rights and equality for all. Using the power of new media, we aim to speak vocally, raise awareness, network and mobilize freedom loving Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia across the world. For enquiries, comments or to get involved, please contact us at [email protected] or email the project co-ordinator Abebe Gellaw at [email protected])
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (IAAF) – African 10,000m bronze medallist Wude Ayalew’s shock {www:defeat} of cross country specialists Gelete Burka and Meselech Melkamu in the senior women’s 8km was the highlight of the 26th Jan Meda International Cross Country — Ethiopia’s trials for the World Cross Country Championships — held at the Jan Meda race course in Addis Ababa this morning.
Gebregziabher Gebremariam produced a trademark sprint {www:finish} to take {www:victory} in the men’s 12km race. Ayele Abshiro and Sule Utura were comfortable winners of the men’s and women’s junior races respectively.
Ayalew stuns Melkamu for 8km victory
After a series of domestic cross country races throughout Ethiopia, the {www:meeting} at the Jan Meda brought together the finest Ethiopian hopes in this cross country season. With Ethiopia’s golden trio Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Sileshi Sihine all missing the race due to injury, it gave the chance to the country’s upcoming and established runners to push for places in Ethiopia’s World Cross Country Championships squad.
Perhaps the biggest winner of the day was the 20-year old Ayalew who has looked impressive on the road in the 2008/09 season with victories in the Great Ethiopian Run (10km) and Sao Silvestre 15km road race in Brazil.
In her debut cross country race in 2009, Ayalew proved that she can not only compete against the so-called cross country specialists, but also beat them.
After a frenetic start to the race, a group of ten runners initially led by Burka started to push on the pace after the first lap (2km). But with the warm and windy conditions affecting the field, the runners were forced to slow down to a virtually walking pace that allowed lagging runners to catch up on the field.
Melkamu, Burka, Ayalew, and Koreni Jelila all exchanged leads at the head of the pack before Burka at the start of the final lap and looked {www:comfortable} for her second ever 8km victory at the Jan Meda race course.
With 200m of the race left, Melkamu was the first run to inject a serious pace at the head of the pack. But Ayalew covered that superbly and launched her own kick to take victory in front of an appreciative crowd.
Melkamu beat Burka for second place with Jelila, Sentayehu Ejigu (winner of the Boston indoor 5000m two weeks ago), and Mamitu Deska occupying the top six places.
The biggest disappointment of the race was defending world cross country silver medallist Mestawet Tufa, who aggravated a leg injury and dropped out of the content with laps of the race left.
“It was a very tough race and I am happy with the victory,” says Ayalew. “I am hoping for a medal in Amman. Although I have not run much recently, cross country is quite important for me. I want to win something this year and hopefully make the Ethiopian 10,000m team for the world championships in Berlin.”
Gebremariam outsprints young field in men’s 12km
In contrast, the men’s 12km had a great element of predictability with African 10,000m champion Gebregziabher Gebremariam taking a sprint victory over upcoming runner Feyissa Lelisa.
A thoroughbred of the course since he made his debut running for his Tigray regional team in 2001, Gebremariam has now won the senior men’s 12km race a whooping three times.
Gebremariam’s Yuriy Borzakovsky-esque-come-from-the-back is often a risk he happily takes. And in a course like Jan Meda where heavy winds prevent any emotional front running, such tactics do not have such pronounced effects always giving him the edge.
The only runner who tried to apply pressure to the field at various intervals was All-African Games 10,000m silver medallist Tadesse Tola, but with the likes of World indoor 3000m champion Tariku Bekele and Abebe Dinkessa following suit, his moves were always covered.
At the bell, Tola led the quartet in a scramble for positions at the head of the pack. Young runners Hunegnaw Mesfin and Habtamu Fekadu also tried their hand at the lead, but Gebremariam, who at this point was the back of the pack, made his move with 150m left. At the end, his burst of acceleration had taken a full 20m ahead of the chasing pack before he started celebrations way ahead of the finishing tape.
Lelisa, who has been the top domestic performer in the Ethiopian cross country circuit this season, beat Tola for second place, while Tariku Bekele, Mesfin, and Fekadu made up the other qualifying positions for Amman.
Utura beats Genzebe Dibaba in the battle of the future
Much like their older compatriots Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, youngsters Sule Utura and Genzebe Dibaba who are widely hailed as the future of Ethiopia’s women distance running are developing into fierce rivals each time they come up against each other.
After Genzebe, youngster sister to Tirunesh Dibaba, defeated Utura in last year’s race, Utura gained revenge at the World junior championships last year when taking the 5000m title.
The outcome of the latest instalment of the Dibaba v Utura went the way of Utura who powered ahead of her archrival with 200m of the race left for victory. It was Utura’s second junior race title in three years, the last race she will compete as a junior before moving up the ranks in 2010.
Unlike Dibaba, Utura has never won a medal at the World cross and victory in Amman looks more likely following her impressive performance here.
In the men’s junior race, world junior cross country silver medallist Ayele Abshiro lived up to his pre-race billing taking a comfortable victory ahead of Yetwale Kinde and Dejen Gebremeskel.
Where justice has lost its meaning, where prosecutors are blunt instruments of a tyrant, where courts are abattoirs of vendetta, where the rule of law means nothing but the rule of a tyrant, trials are too farcical and the judges are too comical to be taken seriously. The star comedians leading the farce, are so-called judges Leul Gebremariam, “Judge” Mohamed Amin, “Judge” Mohammed Umer, “Judge” Adil Ahmed, just to mention a few among many Kangaroo court comedians, who are too busy judging others, clumsily attired in black robes and holding sledgehammers to silence outrage against them and their demigod tyrant.
Unfortunately, their clumsy performance is just a badly scripted melodrama. But they have lost the plot as the public has been tired of their unfunny courtroom comedy. The case of Teddy Afro is not any different from a long litany of unjust courtroom comedies which wrapped up in the usual fashion, sending the victims of injustice to harsh, dirty and crammed jails intently infested with lice, fleas and bedbugs. Falsely accused of incitement against tyranny, I had seen it and tested its harshness. I was just a student protesting against injustice at the Addis Ababa University when Zenawi and Genet Zewdie suddenly decided to illegally fire 42 renowned professors for criticizing the tyrant’s inhuman segregationist and secessionist ethnic policies.
Vengeance for losing elections
The list of the courtroom farce is too long. In the aftermath of his humiliating defeat in the May 2005 elections, the tyrant sent out his ruthless troops, infamously known as Agazi brigade, to shoot, maim and crush kids, the elderly, woman and young men. Their blood still cries out from the grave, but none of the brutal killers and those who detained and tortured over fifty thousand innocent citizens in harsh concentration camps faced justice. On the contrary, the victims and leaders of the ill-fated Kinijit, journalists, VOA broadcasters, civic leaders, ordinary citizens, dissidents in exile were charged with genocide, high treason and outrage against the constitution, which never exists in reality.
There were simple questions that the clown judges failed to raise before the start of the road show. The charges were outrageously laughable. There was no shred evidence of high treason and genocide against Tigrians. It was rather concocted to cause further division and animosity among the suffering children of a poor nation who have zillions of reasons to unite than to divide. But in fact there was an old Tigrian man who was dragged to court by prosecutors to substantiate allegations of the genocide. He was too confused and lost in the dazzling Kangaroo court. He said he was sure genocide was committed as some kids threw rocks on the roof of his house just because he was Tigrian. He was asked to show the perpetrators of this outrageous genocide. He was able to identify none…but finally he found it too much and admitted that the prosecutors had trained him to lie and give such a ludicrous testimony. Suddenly the chief prosecutor, Shimelis Kemal, sprung up from his sit and declared that his key witness was mentally unfit to give testimonies and recite his eye-witness account. Isn’t that outrageously funny?
Judge Adil Ahmed had to give the whole courtroom comedy, which was by then entertaining the whole world, a semblance of justice. After making a long mockery of justice, Adil “dropped” the charges of genocide against 111 people, including some exiled dissidents who could not have exterminated ethnic Tigrians, some of whom were Tigrians themselves, from Europe and America without any long range missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Under mounting pressure from the US government, the charges of genocide and high treason against the five VOA journalists and some exiled dissidents had also been dropped by stand-up comedian judge Adil Ahmed without any convincing explanations.
The high court drama went on and on for nearly two years and at the climax it was time for conviction and sentencing. All of the leaders of Kinijit were found guilty of the concocted crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment and 30 of them were stripped off their right to vote and run for public offices. While Adil’s drama was in full swing, the street smart tyrant was circumventing the courtroom drama by hand wriggling the victims under the guise of “Shimagles”, elderly ‘peacemakers’ led by Prof. Ephrem Yishak, to sign a document that was actually set to release them from jails under a pardon deal. Even that high drama was so unfunny that the move was contradictory to the letters of the “law” and did not even follow the “legal procedures” to be called a pardon or an amnesty
The expensive courtroom drama lost its meaning when Zenawi announced that he found a stroke of humanity in his evil heart and decided to extend mercy to his victims. Despite all the travesties and dramas, even Zenawi knew full well that he and his cohorts were actually the ones who should have faced justice for all the outrageous crimes they have been committing with arrogance and impunity for so long.
Trials and tribulations of a dissident singer
The next high profile courtroom drama in line was the trial and tribulation of Tewodros Kassahun, aka Teddy Afro, who had offended the ruling ethnic junta by calling for change and unity that can ruin Zenawi’s divide and rule agenda. He was too bold to question our trigger happy ruler, whom he referred to in Yasteseryal as a new king but no change. That was actually enough to charge the singer with genocide, high treason and outrage against the non-existent constitution.
The allegation made against Teddy was killing a homeless man in a car accident in November 2006. Again the trial lost credence too soon and was reduced to a mediocre road show with too many memorable dramas, pathetic and unfunny stand-up comedies that have cast doubt on the whole judicial system and fairness of the trial. Like any citizens, Teddy Afro should account to his actions regardless of his superstar status. Nonetheless, immunity from prosecution has never been an issue as the ruling elites and their blind supporters try to assert every now and then.
There are uncomplicated questions that should have been addressed properly to give the whole farce a semblance of legal proceeding. Teddy was arrested in early November 2006 in connection with the alleged crime, but was released on bail after a few days in jail. Nothing happened between his initial arrest and his indictment on April 16, 2008. Between the huge time gap, Teddy was allowed in and out of the country carrying a legal passport and even performed in European and American cities. It seems they wanted him to go in exile. He even rejected offers to entertain the ruling elite during the extravagant millennium party.
Despite the fact that he had enough opportunities to remain abroad, he maintained his faith that the truth would set him free. To his dismay, that never rarely happens in Ethiopia and the trial has been tainted with irregularities and abuse of power from the very start to the very end. Supporters of Teddy who congregated at the court to show their solidarity with the singer were detained and beaten, his lawyer was arrested and subsequently convicted of contempt of court, as if there is one; journalists who published stories related to the drama as well as those who misspelt a judge’s name were thrown in jails.
The presumption of guilt
All the farcical dramas happened during the course of the trial and tribulations of Teddy Afro. On April 21, 2008, Teddy’s supporters came out in full force around the court and demanded a fair trial. The Federal Police surrounded the peaceful protesters and arrested a number of people including two journalists. Negadras, a weekly newspaper, reported that twenty fans of Teddy Afro appeared before the Addis Ababa City First Instance Court on April 30, 2008 and were charged with distributing leaflets, chanting slogans and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the singer’s image, among other trivia. Within a few weeks, Teddy Afro was guilty before he was even convicted. He was denied bail rights and was sent to the notorious Kaliti prison. He was also put in solitary confinement. Many of his popular songs were banned on radios and TVs. Magazines and newspapers were censored and impounded making the case more of a political drama than a judicial matter. In early May 2008, 10000 copies of Enku, a monthly entertainment magazine was impounded and its publisher and deputy editor, Alemayehu Mahtemework, and three support staff who had no connection with the content of the magazine were detained.
Another interesting twist in the high profile drama emerged amidst all the dramas. Teddy’s defence attorney, Million Assefa, and Mesfin Negash, editor-in-chief of Addis Neger were sensationally arrested in early August over an interview the attorney gave to the newspaper. Even if it was just a case of a boomerang coming back to knock the attorney, as he has been helping to draft bad laws and the genocide charges against leaders of Kinijit, it was still comically outrageous. “Judge” Leol Gebremariam accused Million of contempt of “court” for stating in the newspaper that he was intending to lodge a complaint against the comedian judge with the so-called Judicial Administration Council, quite a misnomer where there is no justice to administer!
“The arrest of our colleague Mesfin Negash is an example of how authorities will find justification to detain journalists who cover sensitive issues, and criminalize independent reporting,” Tom Rhodes, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator protested. Even if Million was released, along with the journalist, after serving a few days in jail with a conviction record in their pockets, the attorney had every right, if at all there is any semblance of a judicial system, to make a complaint as well as publicizing his misgivings. Even more, the journalist had no case to answer as he did his job properly. It was clearly a case of a comical judge behaving badly.
That was not all. Another comical miscarriage of justice occurred. Tsion Girma, editor-in-chief of the private weekly Embilta, was arrested and subsequently “convicted” on a criminal charge for mistakenly identifying one of the comical judges involved in Teddy’s case. Her paper misidentified Muhamed Umer as Muhamed Amin. She has now been locked up in Kaliti jail for making a mistake in writing. This may be the first of its kind in the history of injustice and media repressions. It made the mistrial of Teddy not only a political issue that nobody would be allowed to talk about in any shape or form, but also as one of the most absurd and ludicrous stand up comedies ever performed in a court. That is justice; TPLF style!
Mistrials and pardons
After a series of miserably failed stand-up comedies at Zenawi’s Kangaroo high court, Teddy was declared guilty. The trial was tainted and the judges were too tyrannical and too comical to be taken seriously. Teddy Afro stood up and boldly declared that he had been denied justice and had lost faith in the court infuriating and aggrieving the comical judges. His defiance reduced the Kangaroo judges, who are too proud to sit on the high chairs of injustice, to ashes.
On the 5th December, 2008, comical Leul came back through the backdoor with his unfunny jokes holding his sledgehammer of injustice. “Six years in jail!” he declared. But that hasn’t impressed anyone at a miserably failed court of injustice where stand-up comedians are making a mockery of justice. During the sentencing, Leul gave a lecture looking down at Teddy with red eyes that the courts are not there to please him but to deliver justice. “This is a place for justice,” he said and admonished the singer for expressing his lose of faith in the court. “Can I speak?” asked Teddy politely. “No!” shouted back Leul and threatened that anyone who might dare to raise a voice would be charged with contempt of court. Teddy was then dragged back to jail condemned to spend six years of his life in jail.
According to reports, Zenawi “Shimagles” have been busy pressing Teddy to admit guilt and receive the charitable mercy of his the tyrant. That would make the tyrant the fountain of mercy who can release any “convicted criminals” at his whim. But the fact of the matter is that Teddy Afro, like the so many victims before him, has been denied a fair trial in a highly politically charged circus where clowns masquerading as judges have been committing gross injustice against him and all those who have been jailed and abused as a result of is his trials and tribulations. After all these trials and tribulations, Teddy Afro must be freed unconditionally as he has been punished more than enough. How come a criminal tyrant whose misdeeds have been written all over his forehead grants pardon to those facing mistrials and miscarriages of justice?
All the travesties of justice are clear testimonies to the fact that it is high time for change; a radical and drastic change is overdue that should dismantle and replace the rotten system which Zenawi and his cohorts have been sustaining with their corruption, guns and crimes against humanity.
Let the curtains close and the clumsy stand-up comedians and clowns in Zenawi’s Kangaroo courts of injustice, who collect their salary from the blood tears of people they traumatize, be sent to where they belong, convicted for committing crimes against justice. The road show isn’t funny but boring to death in a country where our celebrity’s popular songs are banned from the airwaves! For six years a great popular voice is to be silenced locked up in Kality to be a toy for rats and lunch for fleas, lice and bedbugs. That must be a bad practical joke gone awry.
It is time to banish stand-up comedians and clowns from courts and reclaim justice as the outrageous comics are gambling on the lives of poor, defenceless and voiceless citizens. The owner of the Kangaroo court clowns and comedians should at least make an effort to improve the poor quality of the outrageous dramas and road shows.
Teddy Afro’s message still echoes from jail. It is simply a call for unity and love. That must put to shame those who have been unable to unite for the holy cause of liberating the suffering people of Ethiopia from a tyrannical regime that has made life unbearable day by day.
(Former editor of Addisvoice.com Abebe Gelaw, is a Knight Fellow and Yahoo International Fellow at Stanford University, California. He can be reached at [email protected].)
