Congressman Donald Payne has re-scheduled mark-up of H.R. 2003 for July 18, 2007, at 10:15 a.m. We thank Congressman Payne for his commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights in Ethiopia.
On June 26, 2007 (the initial scheduled date for mark-up of H.R. 2003), Zenawi tried to pull the usual “fast one” on Congress by threatening to take the Kality political prisoners hostage. He effectively blackmailed the
members of the Committee by threatening to indefinitely jail the Qality prisoners should the bill be marked-up. At the time, Zenawi’s regime had requested a 2-week postponement of the mark-up so that a negotiated release of the Kality prisoners could be effected. The regime had calculated that it could derail the bill by removing it from the June 26 calendar.
Liar, Liar…
The Qality prisoners were supposed to have been released on or before July 9, 2007, the date set for their “sentencing” by Zenawi’s Kangaroo Kourt. That date, as usual was continued to July 16. With the rescheduled mark-up date, it appears crystal clear that both Payne and the numerous co-sponsors of the bill are no longer willing to put up with Zenawi’s “horsefeathers.”
Our Grassroots Advocacy Efforts Are Working!
Don’t Stop Calling! Don’t Stop Writing! Let’s Get One-Half of the Members of the House to Co-sponsor! There Has Been a Dramatic Increase in the Number of Co-sponsors This Week!
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ZENAWI’S DETERMINATION TO DEFEAT H.R. 2003!
The massive telephone call and letter writing campaign we started this week is WORKING. DON’T STOP CALLING, WRITING!
Zenawi will spend millions to defeat H.R. 2003, and deny the people of Ethiopia the opportunity to enjoy freedom, democracy and human rights. He has already spent countless millions to defeat this bill and influence
American policy makers. He has unlimited amount money to pay lobbyists and others to defeat H.R. 2003.
Supporters of H.R. 2003 do not have millions of dollars to lobby in support of the bill. The only things we have in our struggle for human rights and freedom in our homeland are: TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE HOLY CAUSES OF LIBERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS.
We are standing up against the giant lobbying firm of DLA Piper. As David has defeated Goliath, we shall also defeat the mighty lobbying firm of DLA Piper. But we must struggle in every way to win. Our grassroots efforts in Congress are working! But we can not afford to let up! Zenawi’s boys are working double overtime to defeat H.R. 2003.
We must work harder than ever to defeat the merchants of misery who will lobby as long as they are paid a hefty sum for their services. KEEP CALLING ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE. ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR H.R. 2003. WORK CLOSELY WITH THE OFFICE OF YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND GET THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE BILL. ASK ALL COMMITTEE MEMBERS TO VOTE FOR H.R. 2003 IN COMMITTEE, AND RECOMMEND IT TO THE FLOOR FOR PASSAGE.
To Those Who Have Not Joined the Struggle for Human Rights in Ethiopia
If you are sitting on the fence thinking that your participation or contribution will not make a difference, or feel success in this legislation is unattainable, take heart in what President Abraham Lincoln said: “The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
The cause of freedom, democracy and human rights in Ethiopia is a Just Cause. Embrace it for yourself! Uphold and preserve it for generations yet unborn! Treasure it forever!
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SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING NOTICE
Committee on Foreign Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515-0128
Donald M. Payne (NJ), Chairman
July 12, 2007
TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, to be held
in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building, for the purpose of marking up the following
legislation:
DATE: Wednesday, July 18, 2007
TIME: 10:15 a.m.
MARKUP OF: H.R. 2003, Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007
NOTE: Measures may be added. By Direction of the Chairman
The Committee on Foreign Affairs seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202/225-5021 at least four business days in advance of the event, whenever practicable. Questions with regard to special accommodations in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats and assistive listening devices) may be directed to the Committee.
WASHINGTON — One dramatic act sets Ethiopia apart from the array of countries with poor human rights records that have become United States counterterrorism allies since the September 11, 2001, attacks: With U.S. backing, it invaded a neighboring country and overthrew a Taliban-like Islamist movement.
The country that Ethiopia invaded is its neighbor to the east in the Horn of Africa, the disintegrated state of Somalia, where the Islamist movement, called the Union of Islamic Courts, had taken over much of the country and was suspected of harboring al Qaeda members. Ethiopia remains militarily embroiled there today.
In its latest human rights report for 2006, the U.S. State Department painted a grim picture of the Ethiopian government’s human rights record, one that has changed little over the years. “Although the constitution and law prohibit the use of torture and mistreatment,” the report says, “there were numerous credible reports that security officials often beat or mistreated detainees. Opposition political parties reported frequent and systematic abuse of their supporters by police and regional militias.”Nevertheless, Ethiopia received a huge increase in military assistance from the United States in the three years after 9/11 — from $928,000 in the period 1999-2001 to $16.7 million between 2002 and 2004. In fact, in 2005 — a year of contested Ethiopian parliamentary elections when government forces detained, beat and killed opposition members, journalists and intellectuals — Ethiopia received $7 million in Foreign Military Financing funding, an amount nearly equal to the FMF total from the previous two years combined.
While both governments deny a quid pro quo, the increased military funding came after the largely destitute African nation became an early member of the “coalition of the willing” and a close ally of the United States in the global war on terror. Influential Washington lobbyists, including a former majority leader of the House of Representatives, worked on behalf of the Ethiopian government to secure the funding.
In the three years after 9/11, Ethiopia received increased funding from the FMF program (to buy U.S.-made weapons and services); the International Military Education and Training program; and the Pentagon’s new post-9/11 Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program, which trains foreign forces in counterterrorism techniques.
In addition to the Somalia invasion, the role Ethiopia has played in the war on terror includes tightening border security, outlawing and restricting financial practices used by suspected terrorists and becoming a key intelligence partner of the U.S. in the Horn of Africa. It was in December 2006 that, with U.S. support and backing, it sent troops into Somalia and overthrew the Union of Islamic Courts; the United States suspects the UIC of harboring members of al Qaeda, including suspects associated with the 1998 terrorist bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
In January 2007, in the midst of Ethiopia’s offensive against the Islamists in Somalia, the U.S. government allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea, The New York Times reported in April. The deal, a possible violation of United Nations restrictions imposed on North Korea in October 2006 because of the country’s unwillingness to cooperate with international nuclear weapons inspectors, appears to be another example of the difficult, and sometimes contradictory, compromises the Bush administration has had to make in the war on terror. The U.S. had been one of the most important sponsors of the North Korean sanctions at the United Nations.
Lobbyists to the rescue
The State Department’s continued negative human rights assessment could have threatened continued U.S. military assistance to Ethiopia under long-standing human rights restrictions enacted by Congress. But thanks to a concerted lobbying effort on behalf of the Ethiopian government and objections from the State Department, supporters of the Ethiopian government managed to stop a bill in Congress that would have cut off security assistance on human rights grounds.
The Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act, introduced by Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., in June 2006, proposed to put limits on military aid to Ethiopia — with the exception of peacekeeping and antiterrorism programs — until the government released all political prisoners and provided fair and speedy trials to other prisoners held without charges.
The bill swiftly passed the House International Relations Committee with bipartisan support. That’s when both advocates and opponents of aid to Ethiopia became active.
The Ethiopian diaspora in the United States launched a letter and e-mail campaign to push the legislation in Congress. To counter that grass-roots effort, the Ethiopian government hired a well-established law and lobbying firm in Washington, DLA Piper, to quash the bill; DLA Piper says its work on Smith’s bill was only part of its $50,000 per month representation of the Ethiopian government.
The lobbying team included former House Republican majority leader Dick Armey and 12 other lobbyists. DLA Piper also produced and distributed a nine-page memo highlighting the Ethiopian government’s opposition to the bill.
In the memo, the lobbyists said that the bill compromised “the national security interests of both the United States and Ethiopia.” They also raised concerns about Somalia that Ethiopia and the United States shared. “The bill will prohibit critical security assistance to Ethiopia at a time when volatility in Somalia and instability in the Horn of Africa region more than ever demand that the U.S. make full use of the intelligence and defense cooperation of Ethiopia, its strongest and only democratic ally in the region.”
Mandatory lobbying disclosure records filed with the Department of Justice show that from April to August 2006, DLA Piper lobbyists talked on the phone and met numerous times with the staffs of the House International Relations Committee; Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Ethiopia and Ethiopian American Caucus; the congressional affairs section of the Department of State; and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and 2008 presidential candidate.
The bill never made it to the House floor. The Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department objected to the bill as being “too punitive” and getting in the way of U.S. foreign policy, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations surrounding the bill. “They did everything they could to sabotage it,” the source said.
A State Department spokesman, Steve Lauterbach, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that the bill was “prescriptive” and “limiting” on how foreign aid to Ethiopia should be spent.
One of the few actions the U.S. took in light of the disclosed human right abuses was to stop the sale of additional Humvee military vehicles to Ethiopia after the Ethiopian government used some Humvees to crack down on civilian protesters in the riots that followed the May 2005 elections. The United States had sold 20 of the vehicles to Ethiopia for use in counterterrorism operations.
Military maneuvers
Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia after the Union of Islamic Courts forces began to threaten the fragile United Nations-backed transitional government based in the southern Somali city of Baidoa. The Islamists had been backed by Eritrea, Ethiopia’s longtime bitter rival with which it went to war in 1998 in a still-unresolved border dispute. In addition, internal Ethiopian insurgent groups were operating from the area controlled by the UIC, according to Terrence Lyons, a George Mason University scholar on the region.
But there was much more to the cooperation between the U.S. and Ethiopia.
Besides providing intelligence assistance and satellite imagery to Ethiopian forces, American AC-130 gunships were allowed to take off from an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to target al Qaeda suspects fleeing with the retreating UIC forces, The New York Times reported in February 2007, quoting sources to whom it had granted anonymity. Ethiopian government officials strongly denied giving access to the gunships. American special forces units were also allowed to deploy to Kenya and Ethiopia, and from there they ventured into Somalia to try to confirm the identity of those killed in the AC-130 attacks, the newspaper reported.
The United States and the international community are providing diplomatic and economic support to the transitional Somali government, which is facing a guerrilla insurgency in the capital of Mogadishu despite Ethiopian forces having routed the UIC. More than 320,000 people have fled Mogadishu. “The transitional government had problems to begin with because it was connected to Ethiopia, the regional rival,” said Lyons, “and now has further problems because it’s connected to the United States.”
According to Lyons, the U.S. bombings in Somalia made the transitional government weaker. “From the global-war-on-terror framework and not from a peace-and-security-in-the-Horn-of-Africa framework, the attack made sense. Actually, it would make sense if they had in fact correctly targeted the [right] people,” he said (American officials told The New York Times that none of the top al Qaeda operatives in the Horn of Africa had been killed or captured since the invasion of Somalia began in December). “From the point of view of creating a stable government and building up a constituency … having a very powerful, very dramatic U.S. gunship come and attack did real damage to the transitional federal government.”
Cooperation between Ethiopia and the United States was not limited to the Somalia invasion. After weeks of outcry by local human rights groups, Ethiopian officials acknowledged that they had secretly detained 41 terrorism suspects from 17 countries who had been fighting with the Somali Islamists. It’s unclear whether Ethiopia acted unilaterally or in conjunction with the U.S. government in detaining the suspects, but American officials told the Times that its agents had interrogated the suspects in Ethiopian prisons. U.S. officials denied that the prisoners taken into Ethiopian custody were part of any “extraordinary rendition” program, under which terrorist suspects are detained outside of the rule of law and often transferred to third countries, many times those known to employ torture.
Back in Washington, human rights groups and the Ethiopian diaspora are continuing to press Congress on restricting military assistance to the Ethiopian government of Meles Zenawi. The United States has been “giving too much to Ethiopia and asking too little from it,” Lynn Fredriksson, Amnesty International’s advocacy director for Africa, said in an interview with ICIJ. In November 2006, she testified at a congressional hearing, arguing that “Ethiopia is an important U.S. ally, but that does not give us the liberty to ignore egregious rights violations.”
Advocates of Smith’s bill say that the legislation will have a better chance of succeeding under the new Democratic-controlled Congress. Smith’s bill was re-introduced on May 9 while a very similar version was introduced by Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., on April 23.
Meanwhile, $2 million of new FMF funding for Ethiopia was requested in 2007 by the Bush administration. The United States also made the country eligible to receive used weapons and equipment for free or at reduced prices under the Excess Defense Articles program.
Meles, the prime minister, is “the victorious-against-terrorists United States friend,” said Lyons. “He is not worried if the [U.S.] ambassador says we are concerned about prison conditions. He would just laugh at us.”
Assistant Database Editor Ben Welsh contributed this report.
Comments made on EthiopianReview.com are being scrutinized by one of the largest foreign investors in Ethiopia, Al-Amoudi, and his high-powered lawyers, for possible legal action against the magazine’s publisher. Al-Amoudi, A.K.A. the “Sheik”, has embraced the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) economically, socially and politically. Because of this, TPLF-funded media have joined the onslaught against Ethiopian Review. These TPLF media say that no matter what our grievances against the ethnic oligarchy in Addis Ababa, we should always defend Ethiopia against groups such as the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). This advice ignores the goals and history of the TPLF, which have always been the destruction of the Ethiopian nation state. For the last 33 years–17 years from Mount Dedebit and 16 years from the seat of power in Addis–TPLF has consistently been laying the basis for the possible disintegration of Ethiopia.
Was it not the TPLF that, under article 39 of its constitution, gave secessionist groups the right to secede from Ethiopia?
Was it not the TPLF that allowed the OPDO to massacre poor Amhara peasants in Harar and Arsi.
Was it not the TPLF that refused to ensure Ethiopia’s rights to sea ports?
The list is endless. Some who seem offended by Ethiopian Review’s stand choose to have amnesia about their advice to the terrorist regime of the TPLF soon after the May 2005 stolen election. The AIGA forum web site, on September 30, 2005, proudly posted a press release from the ”UNION of TIGRAYANS in NORTH AMERICA,” a sister organization of TPLF, in which Meles Zenawi was urged to take whatever action to reverse TPLF’s defeat at the polls. We all know what these actions were. As most Ethiopia watchers remember, the theme of the press release was summarized by the phrase “Decisive Measures” or “YEMAYADAGIM IRMIJJA” to be taken against the opposition. Why do they whine when others take “Decisive Measures”?
Now, TPLF and its supporters are shedding crocodile tears for the people killed in the Ogaden region. Six months ago, when they decided to invade Somalia, they had no sympathy for the civilians of Somalia or anyone in the “Somali Kilil”. None of the noisy Tigrayan and their opportunist allies media condemned the war crimes that were committed by the TPLF in Mogadishu. Let us not forget that even when it comes to the opposition camp, Ethiopian Review does not shy away from exposing corruption while the rest of us were paralyzed by “yelugnta” and fear.
Whatever you feel about Ethiopian Review’s coverage of events in Ethiopia, or the opinions posted on the web site, it is important to distinguish between the TPLF and the “Sheik’s” goal of suffocating anyone who dares expose their greed, corruption and human rights violations, versus those who consistently call things by their proper name, specifically Ethiopian Review.
The TPLF and Al-Amoudi never cared for Ethiopia and its honorable people. In the controversy between Ethiopian Review and the “Sheik”, it will not be difficult to show the connection between money, political favors, profits and human rights violations in Ethiopia. Is it a coincidence that DLA Piper represents the “Sheik” in his quest to silence Ethiopian Review, while the TPLF is represented by the same law firm to lobby against bills in the U.S. congress that call for respect of human rights in Ethiopia?
A couple of years ago it was Tensae radio that was the target of the TPLF’s legal intimidation. This time the target is Ethiopian Review, and the TPLF’s richest and strongest supporter is spearheading the campaign.
Beware of these political and economic alignments before you pass judgment on Ethiopian Review. If the campaign against Ethiopian Review succeeds, there is no telling which web site or political group will be the next target. Remember, money is no object to either Meles or the “Sheik”.
Ethiopian/Saudi billionaire Al Amoudi is unleashing his lawyers at Ethiopian Review. He has the audacity to threaten ER with a lawsuit for associating him with Meles Zenawi’s terrorist regime.
——————————————–
DLA PIPER US LLP
1200 19th Street NW
Washington DC 20036
202 861 3900
Mr Elias Kifle
Publisher, Ethiopian Review
PO Box 1153
Annandale VA 22003
Re: April 27, 2007 On-Line Article Entitled “ONLF said the Chinese were caught in a crossfire with Woyanne soldiers”
Dear Mr. Kifle:
This firm represents Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi.
We are writing to you regarding the content of your article entitled “ONLF said the Chinese were caught in a crossfire with Woyanne soldiers,” appearing on-line in the April 27, 2007 edition of Ethiopian Review. Your article refers to a certain incident in which more than 70 people, including 8 Chinese workers, were killed in a raid on an oil field in Ethiopia, and then the article contains the following statement: “ONLF and OLF might also want to consider carrying out similar operations on Al Amoudi’s gold mines that are cash cows for the Woyanne terrorist regime.” The article then urges the readers to “do it” in a retribution for various actions attributed to Woyanne soldiers.
The suggestion that profits from our client’s gold mine in Ethiopia are used to support terrorism is a highly inflammatory, false and, in our view, defamatory statement. Moreover, the suggestion in your article that acts of violence should be carried out on innocent workers at our client’s mine is simply outrageous. If you have evidence to support the quoted statement referenced above, we expect that you will provide it to us at once for examination. Otherwise, we expect that Ethiopian Review will immediately correct the situation by publishing a formal statement disclaiming the accuracy of this serious allegation and apologize to Mr. Al Amoudi.
If you are represented by counsel, please have your counsel contact us immediately to discuss this very serious matter. If you are not represented, you may contact us directly to confirm arrangements for the retraction and apology.
When Mr. Hastert bottled H.R. 5680 in the International Relations Committee just before the midterm recess, most supporters of the bill were deeply disappointed, and angry. We had labored long and hard to get the bill to the floor, and done a marvelous job of generating unanimous bipartisan support for it in committee. In the eleventh hour, we found out that we had been double-crossed by Speaker Hastert.
Hastert’s action in blocking the legislation from floor action was not entirely unanticipated, but we considered his intervention so remote that we failed to develop effective counter-strategies. After all, Hastert showed no signs of opposition to the bill at any prior time, nor did he manifest the slightest interest in it until late September. Hastert gave us a September surprise.
We felt Hastert had bushwacked us, mugged us in broad daylight. But we could not figure out why he would block the bill. H.R. 5680 was ready for floor action. He could have worked with the International Relations Committee and addressed any concerns he may have had about the bill. Supporters felt betrayed. For the first time in Diaspora history, Ethiopian Americans were poised to use the American legislative process to advance the cause of human rights and democracy in their homeland; and as we hurtled to the end zone for a touchdown, we ran into a stonewall.
But we did not take it lying down. We went directly to Hastert’s constituents and made our case. They listened to us, and in less than a week we were able to enlist the support of local evangelical, civic and media leaders. The heat was on! Hundreds of telephone calls poured into Hastert’s Hill office from the 14th Congressional district. His staffers were amazed, but not amused, by the ferocity of our grassroots efforts.
As Congress recessed for the midterm elections, we had made extensive plans to undertake grassroots work in Hastert’s backyard with support from key individuals in the local media, academic institutions, churches and synagogues and civic institutions. We were ready to take on the Speaker; but we did not have to: Divine intervention was to deliver Hastert an October surprise. Within days of sabotaging H.R. 5680, “Stonewall†Hastert, principal linebacker for Zenawi’s regime, was himself backed into a corner with the Mark Foley scandal. He had apparently been coddling a pedophile who preyed on Congressional pages (high school students who serve as messengers for members).
Early in the Hastert controversy, I had a chance encounter with an elderly lady who tried to cheer me up after listening to my tales of woe over the recent turn of events in Hastert’s office. Her words proved prophetic: “ayozoh lije, gid yelem, yeEtiopia amlak yikeflewal.†(It’s alright my son, the God of Ethiopia will hold him accountable.â€Â) What a difference a few weeks can make! And how the God of Ethiopia has worked in mysterious ways!
In a speech I gave at the University of California, Los Angeles on September 16, 2006, the premier of Obang Metho’s documentary “Betrayal of Democracy,†I urged supporters of H.R. 5680 to shout a great shout around the U.S. Congress, like Joshua’s army fighting the Battle of Jericho, and bring down the walls of DLA Piper lobbyists. And we made a great shout on the Hill, and thank God, our mighty adversaries — those on the Hill and their lackeys peddling influence on the Hill– have fallen down like the walls of Jericho.
Mr. Hastert is now history, repudiated by the American people. Mr. Armey and the whole lot of parasitical lobbyists of his ilk that thrive on the misery and suffering of poor countries like Ethiopia will now be forced to seek a more humane line of work.
But we are the survivors. We are still here, strong and determined than ever, to make history.
Lessons to be learned…
There are many lessons to be learned from the 2006 midterm elections. What the American people did on November 7 is not unlike what the Ethiopian people did on May 15, 2005. They did major house cleaning (no pun intended). After 12 years in power, the Republicans had grown arrogant, disdainful and imperious. Corruption was rampant among some of their members, and a number of their senior lawmakers were selling influence, taking bribes, engaged in sexual debauchery and all sorts of other unethical and immoral conduct. In the end, the Republican House was sending a steady supply of its convicted members to the jail house, or the Big House.
Lesson #1: When the Republicans launched their revolution in 1994, the Democrats had held control of Congress for nearly four decades, and in the end they had fallen from grace. In their “Contract With America,†Republicans promised greater fiscal responsibility, middle class tax relief, legal reform, enhanced national security and many other things. But after only 12 years of controlling the legislative branch of government, the Republicans had abused their power and the trust of the American people. The American people said: “It is time to throw out the rascals!†And a boatload of Republicans was thrown out, and President Bush magnanimously admitted: “We got thumped, it’s time, let’s go.â€Â
In May 2005, Ethiopians voted for fundamental change in their system of governance. They wanted to sweep out 14 years of EPDRF mismanagement. 14 years of misrule. 14 years of misgovernment. 14 years of malfeasance. And 14 years of corruption. And when they voted with a 90 per cent turn out, they thought they had thrown out the EPDRF rascals, given them a good “thumping.†But the rascals would not accept the verdict of the people. Instead, they jailed the opposition leaders for having won the election fair and square. The lesson for Zenawi and company is that when you are repudiated by the people, you graciously accept your fate and work to create an atmosphere of bipartisanship for the good of the country. Even die-hard communist and socialists have figured this one out. Just this week Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, leader of the Sandanista socialist revolution in the 1980s, won the presidential election after 16 years of conservative rule. Zenawi and his party have a great opportunity to do the right thing. Acknowledge the people’s verdict of May 2005. Be magnanimous. Step aside, become part of the loyal opposition, and give the opposition a run for their money in the next election.
Lesson #2: Abe Lincoln was right: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. After 12 years of Republican control of national government, the American people were tired of being fooled. They had enough of the lies and deceptions, and the diversionary tactics and campaign tricks of Karl Rove. In the end, the Republicans could not fool anybody, except themselves. The jig was up! The outcome is no different for Mr. Zenawi: The jig was up for him in May, 2005.
As country folks like to say: “You can’t fool nobody, no more, no how.†Sure, you can arrest your opponents, jail them, torture them, exile them, whatever. You can terrorize and make the lives of ordinary Ethiopians hell. But despite your army, your money and you influence, there is one thing you can’t and will never be able to do: Fool the Ethiopian people anymore. They know who you are!
Lesson #3: The imperative of democracy is that you must accept the judgment of the people. When the American people voted for the Republicans in 1994 and elected President Bush in a tightly contested race in 2000, they made a decision. Americans who did not support President Bush accepted the verdict of the razor thin majority that elected President Bush along with the electoral college system that made it possible for the candidate with the fewer number of popular votes to win over the candidate who had the most popular votes.
Strange things happen in the polling booths. Things like people getting disgusted with the way their leaders exercise political power and authority. Americans struck back and withdrew their consent on November 7. But Republicans did not see it coming, or were blinded by their own arrogance. They got zapped by the people, and they will have many years to pay the price of their arrogance.
Well, strange things also happened to Zenawi and company in May, 2005. Ethiopian voters went to the polls and said: “We don’t want you. We want the opposition.†Very simple and clear message.
The lesson for Zenawi and company is that when you play by democratic rules, you always take a chance. If you have not been doing a good enough job while in power, you get “thumped.†Zenawi and his EPDRF party should understand that a thumped party is a dumped party. Their best option is to accept the fact that they have been rejected by the people, and organize to win the next election. That is what the Republicans will do, and that’s the price you pay in a democratic system when you lose an election.
Lesson #4: Democracy is a funny thing: When you thumb your nose at the people, exploit and oppress them, mistreat and terrorize them and violate the very rights guaranteed them in the Ethiopian Constitution, they grow weary and impatient. Americans learned the lesson of tyrannical abuse of power in their struggle for independence. Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence:
* But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security… The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world….â€Â
Ethiopians can do better, and bring about a just and fair society through democratic and peaceful means. They are ready, willing and able to do so. In May 2005, they demonstrated their ability and readiness to engage in democratic selfgovernance beyond a shadow of a doubt. Ninety percent of the eligible voters turned out and said: “Meles, EPDRF and the whole lot of you, you gotta go!†Let the people’s decision stand, and Zenawi and his party stand down.
Lesson #5: There comes a time in all human events when enough is enough. That time came for the Republicans on November 7, 2006. They lost their way after 12 years of controlling Congress, and now they must find their way back to the political wilderness.
For Zenawi and the EPDRF, enough was enough on May 15, 2005. Zenawi and the EPDRF have lost their vision, if they ever had one. Ethiopia remains at the bottom of the list on indicators of human rights, democracy and economic development. Famine, HIV and other plagues menace the country year after year. Our youth wander aimlessly and hopelessly. The rich get richer and the poor are reduced to subhuman levels of existence. Government officials and their cronies line their pockets and accumulate wealth while young people are executed in the streets like wild animals. Dissidents and ethnic minorities are massacred and
persecuted. Mr. Zenawi: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
On November 7, 2006, the American people spoke. And Mr. Hastert got the message: “It’s time to pack it up and go.†So, “Farewell, Mr. Hastert, Good Bye, Mr. Armey!†And Mr. Zenawi: If you are listening to the voice of your people which still echoes from May 15, 2005: The jig is up! “You got thumped, it’s time, let’s go.†So long!
July 12, 2006  After Auschwitz the international community made a collective promise to defend humanity. Fifty years after the community witnessed multiple madness and abuse of humanity by mindless dictators from Rwanda to Srebrenica, Darfur to Chile, Ethiopia to Cambodia, and Iraq to Chad. The ghosts of dictators haunt millions of children. Their names have become scarecrow for school age children allover the world.
Yet again in the 21 st century where fiber optics and internet technology transformed our lives, we continue witnessing the proliferation of new breeds of ruthless dictators like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. To ascend and cling to power, they have exterminated scores of innocent people, wasted immense resources, and destroyed the cultural and human values of their nations. They killed and imprisoned thousands of their opponents, tortured civilians, mutilated children, raped women and executed many without trials. They buried their victims in mass graves denying them the minimum human curtsey expected of Homo sapiens. They have pulled the triggers of genocide and ignited the chambers of torture.
Like a child playing Entendo games, they watched the act of torture of prisoners by their mindless prison wardens, army and police officers from their palace chairs. For them it is as easy as one two three to decided the fate of their nation from lavish limousine seats chatting with their concubines or drinking whisky with their likeminded people. As a result children were orphaned, women were widowed, and thousands were killed and maimed. Their societies have been paralyzed to melancholy indiscriminately. The level of torture is gruesome to account. Their actions are no different from Hitler, Sadaam or Charles Taylor.
What is shocking and surprising is that UN member states seated at the 2nd floor of the UN head quarters in New York watched the madness of dictators with utter indifference. When one is indifferent to the suffering of others, one has indeed taken a moral stand. A moral stand which says, the life or pain of poor people is of no consequences. Consequently, the international community gave lip services with diplomatic jargons of restrain and containment strategies.
Unashamed of their deeds, dictators sat shoulder to shoulder with Western diplomats in international conferences, workshops and meetings to discuss wide ranging issues from human rights to sustainable development and International terrorism to peace and stability. For example African dictators sat with G8 countries to discuss the New Partnership for Africa’s Development initiative in Kananaskis Canada, the Millennium Development Goal in Galingales with Tony Blair and EU, poverty reduction and sustainable development with WB, and international terrorism with President Bush at the White House. They are signatories of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Convention against Discrimination in Education. More than ever they continue to abuse their women, keep their population illiterate and starve their children to death
Interestingly and under the banned wagon of international diplomacy, diplomats of the so called civilized world attended receptions and tossed friendship champagnes with modern day butchers. The hand shakes and champagne for diplomacy and containment coupled by their unfettered access to western goods and services have emboldened the hearts and minds of dictators. To this end African and Asian dictators who failed to trust their own financial institutions are encouraged to keep their embezzled monies in American and European banks. They are allowed to vacation in western countries often with full diplomatic immunity. Dictators who pressure their people to send children to local schools are allowed to send theirs to prestigious western institutions of learning often at the expense of starving children.
Many are permitted to buy lobby firms in America and Europe to advocate their causes of genocide and tyranny with western governments. A case in point would be the regime of Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia who hired DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary to provide legislative, regulatory and PR services to the Government of Ethiopia. God knows for how long, the firm will receive $50,000 a month or $600,000/annum for its services. At current prices this can buy 150,000 impregnated mesquite nets for the entire families of the residents of Bahir Dar,Ethiopia. In a country where 81.9% of the Population earns below $1 a day, spending exorbitant sums of money to pay rich lobby firms is absolute madness. The firms are greedy profiteers who sell their decency and moral values for sheer personal gain. They should understand that the money they are receiving from Meles’ regime is money taken from starving children of Ethiopia on whose behalf the UN is asking donors for help. What else would be more shameful than to defend a dictatorial regime?
Moreover, Ethiopia is ruled by a minority ethnic group whose members are genetically close to Meles Zenawi’s family. In the 3000 years of its history this is the first time that Ethiopia is ruled by a single family member and a single ethnic group. These ruling elites between them have national assets (excluding their fluid net worth of assets in American, European and Asian Banks) $225 million. At current prices this can buy 57 million impregnated mosquito nets sufficient to protect 77 million Ethiopians from Malaria. Or in monetary terms it constitutes 30% of WFP’s US$763 million budget for its relief and recovery operation for a three year period, from January 2005 to December 2007 in Ethiopia. To add insult to injury the Ethiopian Ambassador in Washington requested his government to send him $20,000 to meet his expenses for compiling the list of names and photos of pro-democracy protesters in Washington and elsewhere in the US. On the contrary, we see that Microsfot co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates devotes most of his time and wealth to philanthropic foundations he established in 2000. Whereas leaders like Meles Zenawi use public and World Bank funds to suffocate democracy. They drain the resources of their people and approach the widerworld to ask for humanitarian and development aid. They use international aid and loan to buy military hard ware to sustain the rule of genocide and dictatorship.
One wonders why President Bill Clinton called Meles and others as the new breeds of African leaders for the renaissance of African democracy. Africans continue wondering how the Bush and Blair administration partnered with these leaders in the fight against international terrorism while they terrorise their own people. It is time to pause and reassesses the moral values of the United States of America and Great Britain.
More surprising is the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund willingness to reward dictators with huge loans and credits for a job well done in castrating democracy, the rule of law and good governances. Recently, the World Bank granted the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenwai of Ethiopia $1.05 billion dollar. But Meles uses this fund to collect the names and photos of pro-democracy demonstrators at the door steps of the World Bank offices and the white House. Knowing full well the atrocities of Meles Zenawai, it is shameful and equally sinful of the WB to crown a dictator with such large sum of money.
So far Western nations who often expose the atrocities and human rights abuses of dictators in their annual human rights report of nations have often failed to take concrete steps. It is, therefore, important to stop business as usual and do some serious business of disaster prevention. In this context, the trial of Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor is a welcome omen. Nevertheless it is something too good that came too late at the expenses of too many innocent lives. It is a pity that the west remained a sleeping giant while genocide, miscarriage of justice, abuse of power and torture took place at the doorsteps of their respective embassies for so long. This is a regrettable diplomatic episode that aught to be condemned and not condoned. There should be no diplomatic and moral generosity of complacence to dictators. Financial institutions should not be keen to hide the monies embezzled by African and Asian Heads of States. Meles and his surrogates who are considered as the darling democrats of African Nations are cold-blooded murderers whose security forces hunt and kill innocent citizens.
Finally “Every year, about US$15 billion pours out of Africa, a sum that equals international aid. As the money comes in, capital flows out into Western Banks. Every year, 70,000 of Africa’s brightest and best leave to work abroad, and 100,000 foreign “experts†come to work in Africa.â€ÂThere is no need of telling African leaders to do capacity building while they are torturing their expertise daily. In the Ethiopian context no capacity building or development agenda will be achieved when the effects of poverty and lack of individual and collective freedom is at stake. Multilateral and bilateral donors should not lend money or provide aid to reinforce tyranny. The community that said no to Auschwitz should be able to say no dictatorship. There should be no sanctuary to corrupt and undemocratic leaders who loot the resources of the people whom they were destined to serve. The developing world is sick and tired of the continuednaivety and complacence of the international community. In unison Africans demand the international community to act before the beast makes colossal damages. Acting after the fall of dictators is just like a dog barking after the enemy left its barracks. That is why the Ethiopian Diaspora and the Ethiopian people demand the Bush administration to approve HR 5680, the “Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006†and implement in earnest. If approved, the Act will send clear messages to Meles Zenawi and other members of the AU in Addis Ababa who are champions of terrorizing and looting their peoples.
The writer is an economist who is interested on international affairs particularly on Ethiopia. He resides in Canada. He can be reached at [email protected]
