Most Ethiopians, particularly the hardline Nationalists, hold the perception that Eritrea is still conspiring with the woyanne regime against the interests of Ethiopia. They believe that even the bloody border conflict between the two countries is an attempt by their incumbent leaders to deceive the Ethiopian people and the international community and is designed to tighten their grip on power in their respective countries.
Evidences on the ground seemed to have validated this perception until the year 2000, as the leadership of both countries had been trying to consolidate power by eradicating those who oppose their rule.
However, Woyannes Economic sanction on Eritrea, the border conflict, and the events in the aftermath of the conflict, not to mention events in Somalia, has brought a major shift in the relationship between the two countries’ leaders.
With the withdrawal of Eritrea’s support to the TPLF regime, the leaders of TPLF have been concerned with their relations with Eritrea, hoping that it work out in the end, despite the firmness of the Eritrean position.
This has led the TPLF to switch their strategies between normalizing relations with Eritrea with or without the EPLF, while continuing to assert themselves militarily to consolidate power in Ethiopia and avert any possible danger from Eritrea or elsewhere.
This, in my view, is contrary to the dominant perception among most Ethiopians that views both governments as working together, and needs to be changed if things on the ground are to change. I believe that after the last May election in Ethiopia, strategizing opposition struggle demands the opposition to change its unwarranted perception and think in terms of forming alliance with Eritrea that could work to the long-term interests of both countries.
The writer believes that a negotiated alliance of opposition with Eritrea is a key in the struggle for democracy in Ethiopia and peace and prosperity in Eritrea. This requires a rethinking of existing relations with Eritrea.
The TPLF Dominance in Today’s Ethiopia
There is no doubting to the fact that the TPLF established itself as a major force to reckon with, both as a national and regional force, in the eastern part of Africa. How did this happen? What contributions did domestic and international factors made to this reality? I do not dare to delve into the series of historical events that led to this event, as it is not the main topic of this article. But, the fact is TPLF emerged and updated itself as a regional force from its gorilla status. Existing trends are indicative of this dominance.
The TPLF has managed to establish its own puppet government in Ethiopia for the last sixteen years and is determined to continue to do so in the absence of any major unfragmented opposition.
The woyannes are now almost in control of all the national and regional institutions of social, economic and political structures. The TPLF cadres are in control of all key government posts in Ethiopia and have well established themselves in the federal government. They have political cadres in all the regions to watch regional colleagues behave exactly as they are programmed. They do this with the help of a well-crafted incentive system which makes regional bosses bow to the will of their TPLF masters in Addis Ababa.
The TPLF policy of patronization is key to its dominance in Ethiopia. The idea of getting political support in exchange for money or other benefits is not seen as corruption by the regime. The creation of patrons who are willing to support the regime politically in exchange for resources is a means to implement the revolutionary democracy of Zenawi in all the regions of the country. Many are willing to be patronized because of poverty in Ethiopia.
The woyannes have made good neighbors at a huge cost of Ethiopia and Ethiopians. The TPLF policy with Ethiopia’s neighbors has always been one of “let us be at peace what ever it takes.” This is primarily aimed at denying any possible safe haven to potential armed opposition in neighboring countries. The so-called border commissions and border trade relations with Kenya and the Sudan are designed to serve this objective. Obviously, this is something a nationalist democratic government is not willing and able to do.
A Weak opposition: why?
Despite the TPLF hegemony in Ethiopia, the opposition remains very weak and fragmented lacking unity of purpose. It has been made so by the well-crafted policies and deceptive diplomatic efforts of the regime.
The absence of leveled political playing field is one of the many causes contributing to the weakness of the opposition in Ethiopia. The Regime’s game of political opposition is based on the idea of loyal political opposition in which opposition political parties are expected to think and act within the framework of the woyanne constitution. Any independent thinking outside this framework is treated as being a traitor and criminal.
The regime uses elimination policy to kill the opposition leaders. In fact, intimidating, imprisoning and killing leaders who dissented is a major strategy for weakening the opposition. Capable leaders who take initiative to enlighten and organize people are always marked for detention and torture. Many leaders suffered this way even long before kinijit leaders come into the political scene.
Weakening the opposition is also meant to legitimize TPLF rule in the pretext of a weak opposition that cannot run the country even if it is given the chance to take power. Meles and his colleagues has always used this phrase to misinform their friends abroad, as if they are the ones who got certification from the Gorilla school in the jungle making them the best leaders of the nation playing by the rules they learned in the jungle.
I also believe that the opposition weaked itself. The Ethiopian opposition forces allowed themselves to be divided by their own making and by the enemy tactics. Most opposition members even today failed to agree on a common national agenda. Even worse, they let their differences remain even when their people are suffering from dictatorship. Their internal weakness opened the door for their common enemy to further subdivide them. They are weak because they still fail to realize the fact that it is their unity the enemy fears most, not how many men they have on the ground or how many supporters they have in the west. The call for meaningful unity is still unheaded or arrogantly ignored.
Misperception on Current Ethiopia-Eritrea Relations: Reality check?
Some Ethiopians still think that woyanne and the eritrean leadership are still working together and conspiring against the Ethiopian people. I, a strong nationalist, am of the view that this requires some degree of reality check.
I believe that there is a strategic gap between TPLF and EPLF since the border conflict broke or probably dating back to the times of the gorilla struggle. Contrary to popular perception, the events of at least the past six years indicate the strategic gap between woyanne leadership and the eritrean leadership. I call it strategic because it is related to the long-term interests of woyanne and Eritrea.
From the Eritrean side, while this had been the case up until the border conflict in the year 2000, it is no longer so. The events following the conflict severed the strategic link between the two dominant powers in the eastern part of Africa. The conflict led to massive human, material and financial losses on both sides. The bloody war cancelled the generation long ties and grew antagonism between the two powers.
From the TPLF side, though, all hope is not lost. TPLF leaders still see their future with Eritrea. Their long-term strategic goal of achieving independence for their tigray region, they think, can best be achieved with the help of Eritrea. The TPLF policy on Eritrea is one of tolerance and defensiveness until recently. Even, the strong stand of the eritrean leadership on tigray secession did not seem to have deterred them from seeking strategic alliance with Eritreans, to say the least. The normalization agenda and mediation through a third party are all tactics for restoring relations with Eritrea as a means to a strategic goal of full independence.
The Eritrean leaders have made it clear that they do not want to see independent Tigray, lest it would mean a lot of things including insecurity for the port of Assab and a threat for the territorial integrity of Eritrea.
However, the TPLF leadership seemed to have lost patience in recent times due to the perceived way the Eritreans act despite the former tolerance towards Eritrea. As a result, the language and rhetoric of normalization seem to have given way to a “Regime change” in Asmara that would enable them to continue with the strategic relationship with the future Eritrea without the EPLF. The effort of some TPLF cadres to work together with some Eritreans, both inside and outside, is a strategy to isolate the leadership in Asmara from its people. As such, it is not a sign of “working together” at the leadership level as most Ethiopians would like to believe. Whether the independence and regime change agendas are feasible options for TPLF leaders, only time will tell.
The Derg Era: Woyanne Alliance with the EPLF
Who could have thought alliance with Eritrea, at a time when all Ethiopians believed Eritrea did not have to break away from Ethiopia, is a key strategy for defeating the Derg Regime, a common enemy, and gain control of power in Ethiopian state? Eritrean strategy does not surprise me because it is precisely this strategy that could secure their independence, that without a proxy control of power in Ethiopia, secession would be practically impossible.
What I think a creative strategy is the one TPLF used to snatch power from the Ethiopian state that has long been the vangard of the nation of Ethiopia. I do not want to mention the stupidity of Derg leaders in acting rigidly, not creatively, to the eritrean question. The woyannes of Tigray thought the unthinkable and did the unexpected to achieve their objective of controlling power in Ethiopia. I believe this gives a lesson to opposition in Ethiopia in terms of strategizing opposition struggle. I believe the kinijit leadership in the USA has made a smart move along those lines which needs to be appreciated and build up on in the future.
The TPLF Aspiration of Independence for its Tigray Region
Despite its grip on power in the state and government of Ethiopia, TPLF leaders has not so far abandoned their paranoid and unrealistic ambition of independent Tigray. They did not even change their TPLF name while forcing other member parties in Ethiopia to change theirs.
Zenawi and his friends are still desirous of librating Tigray from the mainstream Ethiopian land. They made all regional states in Ethiopia to have their own constitution and flags. Their own constitution in Tigray indicates that Tigray people will remain in the unitary government as long as they retain their dominance in Ethiopian politics and state in the name of peace and democracy. Zenawi hinted this in his recent “secret document” circulated among the TPLF leaders in which he spoke of “self-reliant Tigray in the new millennium.”
They have incorporated this aspiration in the Ethiopian constitution and are waiting for their first opportunity, which hasn’t come yet. They see the independence struggle of the OLF and ONLF as a premature move that cannot be granted at this time. To me, the article that allows independence from Ethiopia is the “ let us secede together when TPLF want it” agenda that is planned to be realized after the homework is done: fuelling, instigating and masterminding hatred, tension and conflict among the Ethiopian nations and nationalities to force them decide in favor of secession.
Fortunately, this move has suffered a major setback. The Eritreans has taken a firm stand on the independence of tigray. The Eritreans has already made it clear that they do not like to see independent tigray, and that they want to work with a unitary government of any sort short of woyanne in Ethiopia. The problem they have is the mistrust towards Ethiopian people; especially conservative Ethiopians who does not want to accept the reality of independent and UN accepted country. Sorry, but that is the reality and the bitter pill we need to swallow. Historical mistakes on the part of Ethiopian leaders created this reality. We cannot correct this, however wishful we might be. We can only correct it through peaceful means through dialogue and mutual acceptance and thrust, which will be the core foreign policy agenda of the future government and state of Ethiopia.
The So-called Peaceful Struggle: What did it achieve?
It has always been the deceptive tactic of the TPLF that opposition politics is always framed in the name of peaceful struggle which aims at blocking any thinking and effort towards alternative form of struggling in Ethiopia. The peaceful struggle framework is still the overriding agenda and helped the regime to intimidate and chain opposition hands even when TPLF wants to strike supporters of opposition. Woyannes do not like to see any gun or a resort to gun on any one, especially in opposition hands. When that occurs, they are ready to negotiate. That is exactly where their weakness lies and that is when they start to shake to their knees, and ready to negotiate.
We should ask ourselves, where did the so-called “ Peaceful struggle” led us? The big question that the peaceful struggle has so far failed to answer is, can a peaceful struggle bring about democratic governance in a country characterized by 3000 years of tyranny?
The peaceful struggle has only led to the massacre of innocent civilians including the future leaders of Ethiopia who were not willing to bow to the idol of hatred and revolutionary democracy in Ethiopia. It led to the mass arrests and torture of Ethiopians. It misled our fathers and brothers who are well trained to serve their beloved people and country. It seduced them to work with a schizophrenic enemy to their suffering.
The events of the May 2005 election teaches us that we need to open our eyes to alternative forms of struggling without which the peaceful struggle does not bring the results we want in the shortest possible time.
So, the big question remains, are we going to repeat the mistakes of the past and let woyanne cheat us into believing that there is still a chance for a peaceful transition of power in Ethiopia through democratic means? If we do that, history would prove us wrong. We cannot topple a tyrant through peaceful, democratic means alone.
Room for a Negotiated Agreement
As things stand now, I do not agree with the conspiracy theory when it comes to relations with Woyanne and Eritrea. But, I do believe that Ethiopia and Eritrea need each other to fully develop in a short time.
I still believe that there is room for negotiation between Ethiopian opposition and the leadership in Eritrea for the common good. Issues like economic relations or benefits, access to the sea, normalization of relations, etc can be made if there is a political will on both sides. Both Ethiopians and Eritreans should cease to see each other as enemies. We were on the same boat and we can lead Africans together on the sustainable path of development. This is what the 21stcentury demands from both of us. The Ethiopian opposition should have this vision and attitude. So do Eritreans and their allies.
The perception that woyannes and the EPLF are on the same boat emanates from the conspiracy theory. In my opinion, this is not the case any longer. That is why we need to work together with our eritrean brothers to eradicate the woyanne monster from east Africa to avoid the threat to our survival. We should take lessons from its madness and brutality that is being committed against innocent Somali civilians in the name of fighting Islamists and terrorists. If we fail to act now, there is no guarantee why the same thing cannot be applied on the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea tomorrow.
Conclusion
The Bible tells us that when God wants to rescue His people, He raises warriors to challenge and defeat the enemy of the people. It is time for Ethiopians, irrespective of whether we are Protestants, Catholics or orthodox, Moslems, to pray to God so that men of Valor like Gedion and Samson would raise their hands against the enemy.
When the enemy is merciless, so does the wrath of God. The Woyannes have repeatedly shown their unforgiving attitude even when they have every thing under their control. Their sub-conscious is sick and wounded, and they refused to get treated and healed. Their wound and hatred is still fresh in their mind since their time in the bush. They persistently refused to forgive the Ethiopian people, let alone those who wronged them. That is why we need to rise up in unison to pray and challenge the politics of hatred and exclusion before it destroys all of us.
At the same time, it is important to seek peace and promote reconciliation with Eritrea and its allies, both at opposition level and at population level, for the common good of both Ethiopians and Eritreans. I believe that it is only through peaceful means that one can get what it wants from the other. There is a lot that we can exchange between the two countries if there is a way to communicate and build trust among our peoples and nations. This is God’s way of making peace and reconciliation that has long inflicted both of us. This is the way to mutual blessing and peace. This is God’s will for the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The EPRDF party is driven by power as an end in itself. The lure of the current Ethiopian government’s authority has in fact transformed the political party into a power-machine that crushes everything on its way, including all major opposing parties and civil-society organizations.
Among civil society organizations, NGO’s are of paramount importance because they are known for reaching the most disadvantaged peasants in the remotest parts of the country.1 However, very few of them have so far involved themselves in policy advocacy for fear that it might get them into trouble with apprehensive government officials that constantly keep them under guard.[2]
Of the few local advocacy groups in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) is the most significant. But because it has become a nuisance by reporting the regime’s human rights transgressions, in 1998, the state controlled Commercial Bank of Ethiopia refused to release its assets thus forcing it to survive on donations from the public.[3] Its founding director, prof. Mesfin Wolde Mariam who is an excellent candidate for the Nobel Prize for Peace has also been accused and jailed on dubious charges of “crimes against humanity” and “attempted genocide” both of which carry the death penalty; and ironically, both of which he tried to stamp out through his organization.
Another major advocacy organization in Ethiopia is the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) which was established in 1995. ELWA has the stated objectives, of sensitizing the general public to the plights of Ethiopian women who have been constantly subjected to blatant organized and unorganized abuse. It had done a great deal to protect them not only against administrative, legal and social intolerance and discriminatory laws but also against bigotry, domestic violence, abduction, rape, assault, battery and female genital mutilation. So far, it has given free legal aid to 30,000 women, through it’s national office in Addis Ababa and a dozen branch offices located in remote parts of the country. Most, who have benefited from this generous service are poor and downtrodden urban as well as peasant women folk.[4] The organization has also made unremitting struggle to oblige the government to create a human rights tribunal and the office of an ombudsman. ELWA has kept itself out of trouble with the government by steering away from sensitive human rights issues. But that did not stop it from agitating to have an increase in the political participation of women as voters as well as elected officials. The members are currently putting pressure on the government to follow the example of South Africa, Uganda and Mozambique to set quotas for women candidates who are interested in running for elections.
Trade Unions are the oldest NGO’s to emerge during the feudal period. But the EPRDF regime has not been any less hostile to it than it has been to other independent civil society organizations. Its known tactic is to plant undercover agents in the organization with the purpose of creating splinter groups in the ranks and then supporting factions favourable to its policies and cracking down on groups opposed to it. Many labour leaders have thus been thrown out of their jobs, jailed, or exiled. For example, quite recently, the chair of the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions, Dawi Ibrahim, had been forced to flee to the Netherlands where he has asked for a political asylum to escape unremitting government surveillance on his private life and open ended persecution and hostile measures directed against him by the state security police.
The Ethiopian Teachers’ Association is the oldest and most powerful professional association in Ethiopia. As soon as it came to power, the Meles regime targeted it for fear that it might incite teachers and students against it and lead to its overthrow as it did to the feudal regime of Haile Selassie in 1974. On May 29 1996, as part of its intimidation mechanism, the EPRDF government arrested Dr Taye Woldesemayat, President of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association, at Addis Ababa international airport upon his return from a general meeting in Europe. He was accused of armed conspiracy so that if convicted, he would face the death penalty. But Taye, well-known internationally to have opposed violence, has eschewed even political party affiliation. He was released following intense international pressure. To destroy the ETA as an organization, the government of Mr. Meles Zenawi has resorted to the freezing of ETA bank account as well as its pension funds. It has also closed down its regional offices, conducted several illegal searches, fired ETA members from their professional jobs and jailed many peaceful activists. As if that is not enough, the EPRDF government has disfranchised the original ETA and has established in its place, a rival pro-government organisation that carries the same name. The General Secretary of the ETA, Gemoraw Kassa, fearing for his life, has recently taken asylum in the UK. In May 1997, ETA executive committee officer Assefa Maru, who was also a member of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council executive committee, was shot and killed in broad daylight .
The plight of Ethiopian journalists is not any better. In 1991, the government of Mr. Meles adopted a so called national charter and informed the journalist that except in matters concerning state security, they were free to enjoy full rights to disseminate information without state interference. But it did not take long for it to renege. [5] The Ministry of Information started canceling licensces of publications that it deemed “have not been able to respect their journalistic code of ethics as well as failing to discharge their responsibilities.” As a result, many have lost their businesses. The well-known international human rights organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ], has recently reported that no less than 300 reporters have been jailed in Ethiopia since 1992. Between 1992 and the end of year 2005, at least 16 Ethiopian journalists lost their lives in the hands of armed death squads. The chairperson of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, Mr. Kifle Mulat, announced in 2000, that many of theseof these journalists lost their lives under dubious circumstances, including suicides.
During the disputed election of May, 2005, editors and reporters of independent and privately-owned newspapers were detained and charged with “treason,” “outrages against the Constitution” and “incitement to armed conspiracy”.[6] The accusations are reportedly based on published articles. They are also related to the charges against the KINIJIT leaders who were accused of trying to overthrow a legitimate government by inciting a revolution. None of the journalists were however members of that political party, though they had conducted interviews with its leaders and had made critical remarks about the EPRDF government regarding the conduct of the election. Six publishing companies owned by some of the accused journalists were charged with offences as corporate entities. Five Amharic language Voice of America reporters in Washington D.C. and two US-based Ethiopian website editors (Elias Kifle of Ethiopian Review and Abraha Belai of Ethiomedia) were arraigned in absentia for “attempted genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” Whereas the indictments against the VOA personnel was “temporarily” dropped following intense U.S. government pressure, the latter still face these ominous capital punishment charges.
In the wake of this crackdown, meaningful consultation with major opposition parties was virtually banished and the government cadres, intimidated, jailed and shot all those who failed to fall in line, manipulated elections in the rural areas and made an announcement that Mr. Meles party had won 2/3 of the seats. Public demonstrations were legally banned for a period of one month after the election day. A vicious media campaign was run accusing the opposition of disloyalty. Defeated government officials who were members of the EPRDF central committee were miraculously reinstated into their parliamentary seats after the so-called recounting of votes were conducted under the watchful eyes of a partisan national election board. Tensions run high and there were public protests against the abuse which the European observer group had witnessed and reported. Subsequently the government’s security squad massacred at least 193 unarmed peaceful demonstrators, arrested about 40,000 supporters of the opposition and herded them into jail. Amharic speaking Ethiopians living in non-Amhara Kilils [zones] were expelled by local EPRDF cadres on charges of supporting the opposition which is wrongly equated with an Amhara movement though it is clearly pan-Ethiopian. On the orders of the Prime Minister, the leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy [Kinijit] party who refused to sit in what they considered a rigged parliament, were arrested and charged with “crimes against humanity” and “attempted genocide” – charges that carry the death penalty. When some parties such as the Oromo National Congress took their seats, the government planted agent provocateurs in their ranks, splintered the party, and gave recognition to factions “in good behaviour” with the EPRDF.
That brings us again to civil society organizations. What did they do when all this was expiring? Nothing? One cannot deny that NGO’s that came to Ethiopia in the name of emergency relief aid have contributed to the rural masses of Ethiopia by donating emergency food aid, by providing sanitary services, water and health care systems. In general, they have increased the chances for food security through their “Food for Work” programmes and through their commendable work of rehabilitation and long range development schemes.[7] When it comes to enhancing democracy however, these foreign NGO’s have contributed little. Democracy in this sense means the advancement of social well-being through the enjoyment of political freedoms and civil liberties; it means being governed by the rule of law, being able to engage in open discussion regarding issues that affect one’s life; it means choosing policies and priorities through the active participation either directly or indirectly in decision making process and resolving matters through pragmatic consent and open discussion; and last but not least, it means empowering and raising the lot of vulnerable citizens in one’s area of competency.[8]
Repeated studies have shown that the activities of most NGO’s in Ethiopia are supply driven. They aim to satisfy the source of their funding to carry out their prescribed projects. The funding almost entirely comes either from donor countries abroad or from the government of Ethiopia itself which supplies basic infrastructure and tax relief for goods imported in connection with relief programmes. Civil society organizations also need to renew their registration permits annually, so, they are totally at the mercy of the EPRDF.9 Due to this dual dependence, the NGO’s go out of their way to please foreign donors as well as the government of Ethiopia.[10] One thing that they would never do in order to keep this delicate balance is therefore not to advocate anything that may displease the government.[11] Hence their total silence on the advocacy of democratic empowerment and the protection of human rights. That the state through its party machine creates and runs parallel organizations to stifle the function of genuine civil society organizations has now made the whole exercise almost a farce.
Civil society is clearly a necessary condition for sustainable development both economically and socially. It is a sign of liberty, democracy and an exercise of free will. But one needs to create a set of practices and institutional frameworks that link the voluntary associations in Ethiopia to human rights activities that each and every one of us can help with. We should bear in mind that the NGO’s in the country are exceedingly fearful of the Meles regime and lack confidence in their role as public advocacy groups. They are unsure of their mission outside providing relief and development aid. Hence, there is a need to steer them towards peaceful activism where they can employ their enormous monetary power to bear upon the regime to respond to the people of Ethiopia’s yearning for democracy and good governance. We have to goad the NGO’s whether international or local, to shift their focus. We have to see to it that they develop approaches and strategies that facilitate conditions for democratic transformation.
Indeed, without the active engagement of educated Ethiopians in the Diaspora or at home, it is difficult to expect the Civil Societies in the country to desist from their present practice of avoiding issues that deal with democratic governance and human rights violations. We have to demand from all of them that relief aid is not enough, that they ought to do everything in their power to educate the Ethiopian people to practice democracy and to steer away from the autocratic and divisive venue the Meles regime has chosen. Only if we do that can we reasonably handle the enormous problems our people are facing and fulfil their needs with decency and civility. We have to create more forums to discuss issues related to human rights and democratization. We need a civil discourse. We should also realize that a civil discourse is more than a plea to seek a just and rational outcome by replicable, traceable formal instrumental procedures adopted by civil societies. Rather it is to undertake and participate in an active covenant that as Ethiopians, we cannot avoid our civic duties. We have to incite debate on civil society and human rights, for to avoid doing so is to ignore some of the fundamental elements of democracy that we wish our country should have, a democracy which is a bedrock of freedom and human dignity.
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Dr. Paulos Milkias teaches Humanities and Political Science at Marianopolis College/Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. These are excerpts from a larger paper dealing with Democratization and Political Culture in Ethiopia. The excerpts were presented as introductory remarks at a panel discussion of Canadian government and non-government officials regarding Political Rights in Ethiopia, held in Ottawa on May 4, 2007 under the auspices of the Canadian Peace-building Coordinating Committee.
NOTES
1 Tegegne Teka, 2000: International Non-Governmental Organisations in Rural Development in Ethiopia. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
2 Hollands, G. and G. Ansell (1998). Winds of small change : civil society interaction with the African state : proceedings of multilateral workshops on good governance, sustainable development, and democracy, Graz, Austria 1995–Kampala, Uganda 1998, Published by Afesis-Corplan on behalf of the Austrian North-South Institute and Austrian Development Co-operation.
3 EHRCO, 1998-1999. Special Report Nos. 12-26 (Amharic). Addis Ababa.
4 Original Wolde Giorgis, “Democratization and Gender” in Bahru Zewde and Siegried Pausewang, [eds.] Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, 2002, PP. 120-129 Hillina Taddesse, 1997: The Rights of Women under Ethiopian Penal Law. EWLA sponsored Research Report, Feb. 1997.
5 See “The State of the Press in Ethiopia” in Bahru Zewde and Siegried Pausewang, [eds.] Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, 2002, PP. 120-129
6 The journalist under this list are : Andualem Ayele, Etiop editor, Dawit Fasil Satenaw deputy editor, Dawit Kebede, Hadar editor, Dereje Hailewold, Menilik and Netsanet deputy editor, Eskinder Negga:12; :Satenaw editor;, Fasil Yenealem :Addis Zena publisher;, Feleke Tibebu :Hadar deputy editor;, Mesfin Tesfaye :Abay editor;, Nardos Meaza :Satenaw editor;, Serkalem Fasil :f; :co-publisher of Asqual, Menilik and Satenaw;, Sisay Agena :Etiop publisher and editor;, Wonakseged Zeleke :Asqual editor;,Wossenseged Gebrekidan :Addis Zena editor;, and Zekarias Tesfaye :Netsanet publisher;.:13; Amnesty International Report, 2006
7 Lancaster, C., National Policy Association (U.S.), et al. (2003). Equity and growth : the role of civil society in sustainable development. Washington, D.C., National Policy Association
8 See a very informative survey of the problem by Kassahun Berhanu, “The Role of NGO’s in Protecting Democratic Values”, in Bahru Zewde and Siegried Pausewang, [eds.] Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, 2002, PP. 120-129
9 Desalegn Rahmato “Civil Society Organizations in Ethiopia”, in Bahru Zewde and Siegried Pausewang, [eds.] Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, 2002, P. 107: Kassahun Berhanu, “The Role of NGO’s in Protecting Democratic Values”, in Bahru Zewde and Siegried Pausewang, [eds.] Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet and Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, 2002, PP. 120-129
10 Kajese, K. T., 1990: “African NGO Decolonization: A Critical Choice for the 1990s”,in Critical Choices for the NGO Community: African Development in the 1990s, Seminar Proceedings, 30, Proceedings of A Conference held at the African Studies Centre, University of Edinburgh, 24-25 May.
11 Chan, S. (2002). Composing Africa : civil society and its discontents. Tampere, Tampere Peace Research Institute.
Further Information on UA 88/07 (AFR 25/002/2007, 16 April 2007) – Incommunicado detention/
Bashir Ahmed Makhtal (m), Canadian national
Halima Badrudine Hussein (f), Comorian national
Ayub Abdurazak (m), French resident
Tesfaldet Kidane Tesfasgi (m), Eritrean national, television cameraman
Saleh Idris Salim (m), Eritrean national, television journalist
Osman Ahmed Yassin (m), Swedish national
Sophia Abdi Nasir (f), Swedish national
Ines Chine (f), Tunisian national
Abdi Muhammed Abdillahi (m), Kenyan national
And up to 75 other men, women and children of various nationalities
Bashir Ahmed Maktal is at risk of ill-treatment or torture, as the government suspect him of links with an armed opposition group which attacked an oilfield in the east of the country on 24 April. He is believed to be detained incommunicado at the police Central Investigation Bureau (known as Maikelawi) in the capital, Addis Ababa, and has not been charged with any offence.
The Ethiopian authorities have acknowledged detaining 41 of more than 80 people who were arrested trying to cross from Somalia into Kenya, and have said 29 will be released. The whereabouts of the remaining detainees remain unknown.
The 24 April attack was carried out by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting for self determination for the Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia. Six Chinese and 65 Ethiopian workers were killed during the attack. Seven Chinese workers were abducted by the ONLF but released on 29 April.
The Ethiopian authorities suspect Bashir Ahmed Maktal, who is of ethnic Somali origin, of having links with the ONLF, and they have reportedly pressured him to confess this publicly. Amnesty International is concerned he may be ill-treated or tortured to make him “confess”.
Two Eritrean journalists who are held with Bashir Ahmed Maktal, Tesfaldet Kidane Tesfasgi and Saleh Idris Salim, were shown on Ethiopian TV and on a website called Waltainfo.com on 13 April. They were accused of being Eritrean soldiers sent by the Eritrean government to fight in Somalia against Somalia’s Ethiopia-supported government. Like Bashir Ahmed Maktal and others detained with them, they have had no access to legal counsel or their families, and have not been charged with any offence.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:
– expressing concern at reports that Bashir Ahmed Maktal, Tesfaldet Kidane Tesfasgi and Saleh Idris Salim, who were arrested while trying to cross from Somalia into Kenya and later transferred to Ethiopia, are still detained without charge or trial;
– urging the authorities to ensure Bashir Ahmed Maktal is not ill-treated or tortured into making a television “confession”;
– urging the authorities to grant Bashir Ahmed Maktal, Tesfaldet Kidane Tesfasgi and Saleh Idris Salim immediate access to their lawyers and families;
– calling on the authorities to release all three immediately if they are not to be charged with recognizably criminal offences.
An Internet watchdog on Tuesday accused Ethiopia of blocking scores of anti-government Web sites and millions of blogs in one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cases of cyber-censorship.
Web monitor, the OpenNet Initiative, said the Horn of Africa country was stopping citizens from viewing opposition-linked Web sites, and blogs hosted by Blogger, an online journal community owned by Internet search engine Google Inc.
Ethiopia dismissed the report as “a baseless allegation.”
“We may have technical problems from time to time,” Information Ministry spokesman Zemedkun Tekle. “But we have not done anything like that and we have no intention of doing anything like that.”
The OpenNet Initiative — a partnership between Harvard Law School, and universities of Toronto and Cambridge and Oxford — said it had gathered proof of interference.
“We have run diagnostic tests using volunteers in Ethiopia which indicate that they are blocking IP addresses,” OpenNet research director Robert Faris said, referring to the unique numeric addresses of Web sites.
“The evidence is overwhelming that that is what they are doing. … Most of the sites that we found blocked were related to freedom of expression, human rights and political opposition,” he said by telephone from the United States.
The allegations could be embarrassing for the Ethiopian government, which is a major ally of the United States in Africa and has been criticized for a post-election crackdown on opposition that killed nearly 200 people in 2005.
“I think it’s a decision that makes the Ethiopian government look extremely hostile to free speech and to open political discourse,” said Ethan Zuckerman, research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society in the United States.
The Ethiopian blockages are part of a growing global trend, Faris said.
“As recently as five years ago, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia were the only countries that were filtering the Internet. Now we have found two dozen,” he added.
The full list of countries will be published later this year in a book entitled “Access Denied: the Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering.”
OpenNet found some filtering of pornographic and political Web sites in Islamic north African countries including Tunisia.
Some pornographic and anti-Islamic sites were also blocked in Sudan, although the Web sites of many human rights groups critical of the situation in Darfur remained visible.
But it found no evidence to back up reports of online censorship in Eritrea and Zimbabwe. Ethiopia was the only widespread campaign identified in sub-Saharan Africa, the OpenNet report said.
Ethiopia has one of the world’s lowest Internet access rates — only two out of every thousand Ethiopians were logging on in 2003, according to the United Nations Development Program’s latest Human Development Report.
But it also has one of Africa’s healthiest blogging scenes, fuelled by a handful of anonymous writers in the capital Addis Ababa and the large communities of politically active Ethiopians in the United States and Europe.
OpenNet said many of Ethiopia’s blogs were caught in a blanket blockage of Google’s Blogger service, home to millions of blogs worldwide, most having nothing to do with politics.
The chandeliers in the grand drawing room of the Ambassador’s Residence sparkled overhead.
Swathes of tartan were draped round the room and a bottle of whisky stood at the centre of every table as guests arrived to the sound of bagpipes.
Held last Friday at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, this was a most unseasonable Burns Night.
But then – as the Ambassador Bob Dewar confided to one guest – back in January when it should have taken place, there had been “a little bit of trouble from the local Somalians”.
Still, the three-month delay did nothing to curb the lavish entertainment or high spirits on the night. The lights blazed from the wisteria-covered residence, illuminating the manicured lawns outside.
Beyond the 90-acre embassy compound, on the southern slopes of the Enoto hills, past the six-hole golf course and densely wooded gardens, leopards prowl and poverty pollutes.
But the world outside the compound was of little interest that night to the privileged few who knew with smug satisfaction that they were being indulged in the loveliest embassy in Africa.
Theirs is a world coloured by the blossom of bougainvillea and shaded by fig trees. A fantasy of expat life where the compound’s own pub, the Addis Arms, serves roast beef on a Sunday and has warm beer on tap.
And it is ringed with walls and protected by 35 armed guards whose gaze is fixed forever outwards to the dust and suffering of the city of Addis Ababa.
It was into this far less hospitable realm that, the day before the Ambassador’s sumptuous Burns Supper, eight bedraggled Ethiopians had returned.
While the guests at the embassy partied, these men and women struggled to adjust to their first day of freedom after 52 days in captivity.
And they hoped, quietly, that just one of the senior British Government officials whose folly had placed them in danger in the first place, just one of the embassy staff, might acknowledge their return. They waited in vain.
Safe at last: Yonas Mesfia, Debash Bayu and Ashenafi Mekonnen arrive at Addis Ababa
The capture of five British embassy officials working out of Addis Ababa by the Eritrean military last month made international headlines and their rescue was the subject of fervent diplomatic endeavour. But it was the fate of the embassy party, and not the eight locals, that seemed to matter.
Missing were Peter Rudge, First Secretary; his 25-year-old French-born girlfriend Laure Beaufils, a working-group leader for the British Government’s Department for International Development; Jonathan Ireland, administrative officer at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa; Malcolm Smart, a personnel officer for DFID; and Rosanna Moore, wife of the head of the British Council.
A Foreign Office team of ten had flown to Addis Ababa to secure their release, the Finnish diplomatic mission had been pressed into setting up a field hospital and military helicopter cover and the SAS had been placed on stand-by across the Djibouti border.
The eventual release of the five Europeans, after 12 days, was presented as the “happy ending” to the incident – but until now nothing has been known of the fateful trip that led to their abduction nor of their conduct during captivity and, more pertinently, their behaviour following their release.
But now The Mail on Sunday can reveal the truth about the life of careless ease enjoyed by these servants of the realm.
We can reveal the utter folly of a journey that saw them place not only their own lives, but those of the local guides and staff who accompanied them, in mortal danger – when just a glance at the Lonely Planet guide would have provided stark warning of the dangers at their planned destination.
Their arrogance was compounded by the decision to travel in white 4×4 vehicles bearing easily recognisable diplomatic plates and marking them out as a prime target.
Most shockingly of all, we can reveal the callous disregard displayed by these adventurers to the Ethiopians who accompanied them on their trip.
The officials promised support when they were released ahead of their guide, cook, mechanic and the five other locals who made up their party. Once the Europeans were free, the Ethiopians were abandoned to their fate.
There was no sign of the diplomats at the night vigil held in Addis Ababa’s Anglican church to call for the Ethiopians’ release. They did not join the support committee lobbying for the men’s freedom.
And they were not at Addis Ababa airport on Thursday alongside The Mail on Sunday to embrace their bedraggled brothers in adversity, though it was by then a full 40 days after their own ordeal had ended.
None of the hostages has spoken of their ordeal until now and it is through the testimony of guide Ashenafi Mekonnen, 25, cook Debash Bayu, 27, and mechanic Yonas Mesfia, 31, that the true and shaming picture emerges.
Ashenafi, an orphan of the 1987 famine, is remarkably forgiving as he recalls his ordeal. He says: “We all had good days and bad days but we Ethiopians knew we were always in the most danger.
“The Eritreans hate us after our 30-year struggle and our recent years of fighting on the border. We thought they would kill us. They were threatening us all the time. We believed we would all be rescued together one day or die together.
“Nobody knew which it would be. All the days seemed the same and ran into each other. Only heat exhaustion helped us to sleep at night.
“But one hot afternoon our captors called the ferangi – the white men – to one side and said they should get ready to go. They told us Ethiopians we were not going anywhere. We were staying in the desert.
“At first the British tried to persuade them to let us come. But they soon gave up. They came to say goodbye, hugging us and saying they would never forget us. The French girl, the pretty one, she was crying with happiness.
“They knew they were going home. We have never heard from them since, even these few days we have been free.”
Instead the British group walked gratefully off to the helicopter that would take them home, leaving the Ethiopians who had cooked and cleaned for them, guarded them and driven their vehicles, with barely a backward glance.
They returned to the sybaritic existence of feckless indulgence that had placed them in such danger in the first place. Rudge, Beaufils, Ireland, Smart and Moore had embarked on what they expected would be four fabulous days in one of the world’s most remote areas – the lonely Afar region. Yet a glance at the Lonely Planet guide would have told them in emergency red lettering that their choice of destination presented “an extreme risk to your security”. They would have also read that travel to this area at the Eritrean border military zone should be avoided. They knew that they should take armed guards.
But with supreme arrogance they carried on regardless, planning to meet up with their local helpers in the region itself.
This trip was, after all, a reward – a treat given by the small group of friends to themselves, after staging a particularly gruelling production of Macbeth for their fellow expats.
By the fourth day of their trip they had trudged up the Erte Ale volcano, and journeyed down to the salt pans in the Danakil Depression 410ft below sea level, with their food, transport and comfort assured by the retinue of staff who came in their wake.
“They don’t know much about our culture,” says Debash, the party’s cook. “So it was a change for them to be with us. We took all the food, water in jerry cans, and mattresses from Addis.
“We brought the table and chairs, knives and forks and even tablecloths to make them feel at home.”
And while the small party enjoyed this relative comfort, Debash cooked nourishing soups from potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic and they ate rice with curry sauce.
Guide Ashenafi says: “We had enjoyed being with the white people. They were so happy to see our desert landscape up in the Afar region. We walked up the volcano together to the lava lake at night and we went to the salt mines and saw the camel caravans.
“It was new and exciting to them and they were very jokey and friendly. Malcolm Smart was always the heart and soul of the party.
“We ate together at night. They shared one bottle of wine each evening and we joked about having a big party together once we got back to Mekele, the main town in the region.
“On our last night in the Danakil Depression we stayed at a simple Afar tribal house, ate some goat meat and rice and drank a little wine. We only had the vehicle headlamps for light and there was no bathroom.
“It was primitive but they seemed proud of themselves to be roughing it for once.”
They could, after all, have spent a lifetime in Addis Ababa knowing only the comfort of the embassy where rooms are air conditioned, lawns watered, food plentiful and linen freshly pressed.
Ashenafi describes what happened on the night of the captures. “Three of us Ethiopians slept outside on the desert floor and Peter and Laure were together in their camp-bed close by.
“All the others slept on mattresses inside the thatched house. It was warm and there were many, many stars. We were planning to get up at 6.30 for the journey back to Mekele, then home.”
Three hours after settling down the sleeping men were kicked awake by masked Eritrean militiamen carrying AK47 rifles. Ashenafi says: “They cried, ‘Get Up! You’re all coming with us.'”
In a startlingly brave gesture their host that night, an Afar tribesman called Hussein, pleaded with the Eritreans to take him, not his ferangi guests.
“Instead,” says Debash, “they made him come with us. They let the white people get their shoes and clothes and rucksacks from the vehicles and then we walked.”
Debash recalls how, in a moment of intense tension, Rosanna Moore used her remote control key to lock their vehicles as they left – but her pointless act caused chaos.
The signal of the alarm and the flashing lights that went off as the locks operated spooked the nervy captors and they loosed off bullets and a hand grenade, destroying two of the cars.
Once calm was restored the party embarked on their long walk into captivity. Debash recalls: “After two hours they let us rest but we walked on for five days altogether.
“Peter’s shoes weakened and he ended up limping painfully. We all had to be kept in the desert with a little water and terrible food. We seemed to be in it together, keeping each other’s spirits up.
“The ferangi found some books and paper in their backpacks and cut them up to make a pack of cards so we could while away the long hours in the desert. We played Patience and we taught them some of our games and they played together.
“Malcolm kept them strong, trying to negotiate with the 30 soldiers guarding us. He made jokes and kept our spirits up. And he carried everything, the water, the rucksacks and the heavy things.
“But Jonathan Ireland, who had organised the trip, really crumbled and became weak. He was very sick with stomach problems and depressed and all he wanted to do was sleep. The two women were strong though the French girl cried at everything, good or bad.
“At night we slept in a long row under palm trees out in the open. There were guards sleeping at each end of the row and us all lying together.
“We could not do anything without the Eritrean soldiers giving us permission. They stood with their guns and told us when we could wash, when we could go into the bushes, when we could eat and when we could drink water.
“The water had sand in it and so did the crude bread they made over hot stones heated on an open fire. It was horrible.
“We had some rice and goat’s meat and we all ate with our hands, even though the ferangi were not used to it.”
It might be assumed that through the awful uncertainty of that time a bond of mutual support and trust would spring up between the “ferangi” and their retinue.
So on the day the five Europeans were released, as Ashenafi and his friends watched them depart, there was no reason for him to doubt their promises not to forget them.
But forget them, it seems, they did. There followed days of beating, threats of torture and near starvation. There was no diplomatic mission, no SAS on standby, no field hospital or helicopter gunships ready for them. Instead a rag-tag group of Afar elders made it bravely through the disputed desert territory to talk their captors into releasing them. The kidnappers in turn held these elders for a week.
Last Friday as the skirl of two bagpipes – played by two members of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who were flown in specially for the Burns Night – drifted into the evening air at the Residence, The Mail on Sunday asked Ambassador Dewar when he planned to see the released Ethiopians.
“When they get back here,” he smiled. “Who told you they were already in Addis? You don’t want to believe that. It’s not true.”
Yet as the Ambassador returned to his guests, just two miles away the eight Ethiopians ate a meagre supper of injeera – a doughy pancake – and meat curry: abandoned to their fate, it seems, for a second time.
This is the most lawless war of our generation. All wars of aggression lack legitimacy, but no conflict in recent memory has witnessed such mounting layers of illegality as the current one in Somalia. Violations of the UN charter and of international humanitarian law are regrettably commonplace in our age, and they abound in the carnage that the world is allowing to unfold in Mogadishu, but this war has in addition explicitly violated two UN security council resolutions. To complete the picture, one of these resolutions contravenes the charter itself.
The complete impunity with which Ethiopia and the transitional Somali government have been allowed to violate these resolutions explains the ruthlessness of the military assaults that have been under way for six weeks now. The details of the atrocities being committed were formally acknowledged by a western government for the first time when Germany, which holds the current EU presidency, had its ambassador to Somalia, Walter Lindner, write a tough letter – made public on Wednesday – to Somalia’s president, Abdullahi Yusuf.
The letter condemned the indiscriminate use of air strikes and heavy artillery in Mogadishu’s densely populated areas, the raping of women, the deliberate blocking of urgently needed food and humanitarian supplies, and the bombing of hospitals. This is a relentless drive to terrify and intimidate civilians belonging to clans from whose ranks fighters are challenging the occupation.
There was a time when security council resolutions were hallowed in most of the world, as for example resolution 242 demanding the return of occupied Palestine territory in exchange for peace. But in our new world order, the powerful decide which UN resolutions are passed, and whether they need to be honoured. So the United States, which was violating the UN arms embargo on Somalia, rushed through another resolution in December that it thought would better serve US goals – and then proceeded to violate that one as well.
The new resolution forbade neighbouring countries from being part of the regional peacekeeping force the security council authorised for Somalia; but Ethiopia went much further and unilaterally invaded, with the covert assistance of the US – which also joined the war by bombing Somalia.
This December resolution actually contravened the charter itself, because it made the security council the aggressor and turned a clearly peaceful situation into war. The resolution linked the Islamic Courts government to international terrorism and mandated peacekeeping force, on the basis of chapter VII of the UN charter, to address the “threat to international peace and security” that Somalia posed – when every independent account, including Chatham House’s on Wednesday, indicated that the country was experiencing its first peace and security since 1991.
The resolution paved the way for the Ethiopian invasion that has led to the bitter conflict that many independent analysts, including those at a meeting in Addis Ababa organised by Ethiopia’s Inter-Africa Group, had warned would be the inevitable result. A government imposed through force by arch enemy Ethiopia was never going to hold sway.
The long silence and the refusal even now to announce measures that might arrest this slaughter mark the lowest point in the big powers’ abdication of the “Responsibility to Protect” mandate – adopted, with British leadership, at a summit-level meeting of the security council two years ago. The world’s most impoverished people are now being ripped to shreds with no effort whatsoever to get the perpetrators to desist.
A huge campaign must be launched to press western governments to end this slaughter, which is almost entirely the work of those in control of the country. The European Union warned a month ago that war crimes might have been committed in an assault on the capital last month – in which the EU could be complicit because of its large-scale support for those accused of the crimes. Human Rights Watch has documented how Kenya and Ethiopia had turned this region into Africa’s own version of Guantánamo Bay, replete with kidnappings, extraordinary renditions, secret prisons and large numbers of “disappeared”: a project that carries the Made in America label. Allowing free rein to such comprehensive lawlessness is a stain on all those who might have, at a minimum, curtailed it.
Work must begin to derail the astounding proposal from the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, which is to be discussed by the security council in mid-June. He would like to mount a UN-sanctioned “coalition of the willing” to enforce peace and restore order in Somalia – in other words, the UN would help Ethiopia and the United States achieve what their own illegal military interventions have failed to accomplish: the entrenchment of a client regime that lacks any popular support. Such an operation is unlikely to succeed in any event, but it could further threaten the turbulent Horn of Africa, which is already teetering on the brink of chaos.
The Somali government is busy crying “al-Qaida” at every turn and offering lucrative deals to oil companies, in a bid to entice greater western support. But this war was lost long ago. In turning to the arch enemy Ethiopia, the transitional government’s fate was sealed: the nation will not abide an Ethiopian-US occupation.
Only a political solution will resolve this crisis. Africa must step up to the plate and show spine and leadership in a drive to protect its civilians, and work with Europe and the UN to convince the US to swiftly terminate its latest destabilising adventure.
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Salim Lone, who was the spokesman for the UN mission in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, is a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya – [email protected]
