EDITOR’S NOTE: Didn’t Bereket Simon say that security situation “in Ogaden is improving by the day”?
(CPJ) — TwoSwedish journalists reporting on the activities of armed separatists operating in an oil-rich province of eastern Ethiopia have been detained without charge since Thursday in the Horn of Africa nation, according to news reports and government officials.
Ethiopian Woyanne security forces arrested photojournalist Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye, contributors to the Sweden-based agency Kontinent, along the border with neighboring Somalia, government Woyanne spokesman Bereket Simon told CPJ.
The journalists had been embedded with Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels who had come under attack by government Woyanne forces, said Simon. Persson, 29, was wounded in the hand and Schibbey, 30, in the shoulder during the fighting, according to news reports. The two received medical treatment under police custody in the border city of Jijiga, Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecilia Julin reported.
Persson and Schibbey were moved from Jijiga to the capital, Addis Ababa, this evening and were expected to appear in court in the near future, Simon added. In a report, the Ethiopian government-controlled broadcaster claimed that security forces killed 15 rebels and captured six others, including the journalists, in the raid.
Simon alleged the two journalists had crossed over the border from Somalia without accreditation. CPJ research shows that Ethiopia has blocked independent access to the Ogaden, a Somali-speaking region that has been home since 1984 to a low-level insurgency. Last month, the Ethiopian government formally categorized the Ogaden National Liberation Front as a terrorist group under the country’s sweeping anti-terrorism law, which construes any reporting the government deems favorable to a terrorist entity as a criminal offense.
Persson has worked with Kontinent for five years and has covered many dangerous assignments across the globe, including stints in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, colleague Jacob Zocherman told CPJ. Schibbey, an experienced reporter, has written many human rights-related stories, including a series of reports on human trafficking in Asia, Zocherman said. Both are professional journalists with no affiliation to the rebel groups. Kontinent has gathered all of the two journalists’ work as proof of their colleagues’ professionalism, Kontinent Picture Editor Martin Laupa told CPJ.
“These journalists should not be detained for seeking to cover an under-reported story,” said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. “The Ethiopian authorities must release them immediately.”
With the arrests of Persson and Schibbey, eight journalists are behind bars in Ethiopia, making the country the second worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa, according to CPJ research.
Persson and Schibbey follow other international journalists arrested for attempting to report on the Ogaden conflict, according to CPJ research. Journalist Heather Murdock was expelled in 2010 while reporting near the Ogaden, while a crew from The New York Times was expelled in 2007 while reporting in the region.
The Voice of America’s (VOA) Journalist Standards & Practices (document 11-023 and 11-024), under the section captioned “WHAT DO VOA’S AUDIENCES HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT? Audiences ‘ Bill of Journalism Rights” provides that VOA’s audiences have the:
right to expect that journalists will monitor power and give voice to the voiceless. The press should use its watchdog power to uncover things that are important and new and that change community thinking… The press should monitor all the key centers of power in the community-including but not limited to government.
Last week, a visiting delegation of the VOA Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in Ethiopia was served an ultimatum by dictator Meles Zenawi: If the VOA wants the electronic jamming of its broadcasts to Ethiopia stopped, it must silence and banish from its microphones the voices of specific individuals in the Ethiopian Diaspora and some within Ethiopia. The delegation told Zenawi that the VOA is voice of the voiceless, not the silencer of the already voiceless.
It was an amazing display of nerve, hubris and insolence. In what amounts to a black list of enemies, Zenawi handed the VOA delegation a roster of well-known Ethiopian opposition leaders, activists and advocates who have long championed the causes of democracy, freedom and human rights in Ethiopia. Among the individuals Zenawi wanted blackballed by the VOA include Paulos Milkias, Beyene Petros, Getachew Metaferia, Seeye Abraha, Merra Gudina and Berhanu Nega. But the black “list goes on” with the names of numerous other individuals. This author is reportedly among the individuals the VOA was asked to ban.
My hat’s off to the VOA’s BBG for upholding its “Audiences ‘ Bill of Journalism Rights” and legal mandates against such a brazen assault on its journalistic integrity and professionalism.
The Irony of Defending a Dictator
It is ironic that Zenawi is now trying to take away my right to speak freely in America sitting in his palace in Ethiopia. Last September, I stood up to defend his right to speak freely in America, at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum. I was perhaps the only individual in the in the Ethiopian pro-democracy opposition who stepped forward and publicly and vigorously defended Zenawi’s right to speak at that Forum. I faced withering criticism and censure in public and private for defending Zenawi’s right. So many were disappointed in me for taking such a public stand. Some openly questioned my sanity suggesting that I was living in my “academic fantasyland” to defend such a “ruthless dictator”. Others pitied me for being “hopelessly naïve”. Some even doubted my integrity by suggesting that I had “sold out” to Zenawi by defending his right to speak in America.
I am glad to have defended Zenawi’s right to speak, and would do so again without hesitation. The ultimate proof of one’s unwavering belief in freedom of expression is one’s unwavering acceptance of the right of free expression of those whose views one considers abominable. That was why I stood up and unreservedly defended Zenawi’s right to speak at Columbia:
But as a university professor and constitutional lawyer steadfastly dedicated to free speech, I have adopted one yardstick for all issues concerning free speech, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’ I underscore the words ‘everyone’ and ‘regardless of frontiers…’
Though I condemn Zenawi for his abuse, mistreatment and cruelty against Serkalem and Eskinder and other journalists, disagree with him on his repeated theft of elections, trashing of the human rights of Ethiopian citizens, boldfaced lies about economic growth… unjust incarceration of Birtukan Midekssa… crackdown on the press and civil society organizations, subversion of the legislative process to mill out repressive laws… I shall vigorously defend his right to speak not just at Columbia but at any other public venue in the United States of America.
Now, Zenawi tries to strong-arm the VOA into taking my right of free speech in America by having me and others blackballed. Zenawi has sealed the mouths, plugged the ears and poked out the eyes of 80 million Ethiopians. Now he has the temerity, the sheer audacity to demand the VOA to do his dirty job in America!?!
I am not sure whether to laugh out loud, take offense or express outrage at such a brazenly impudent attempt to interfere with the right of free speech and of the press in America. But this is not the first time Zenawi has tried to jerk the VOA or other international broadcasters. In 2005, he charged five Ethiopian-born VOA journalists in his kangaroo court on trumped up “genocide” and other charges. Last year, he likened the VOA to Rwanda’s genocide-Radio Mille Collines. Zenawi has managed to intimidate Deutche Welle (DV) (German Radio Ethiopia Broadcast) editors into keeping his critics off the air by orchestrating a campaign or fear and smear. The fact of the matter is that Zenawi can intimidate and threaten Deutsche Welle and the independent press in Ethiopia. But he will never be able to do the same to the VOA!
One is left wondering if Zenawi has a clue about speech and press freedoms in America. Does he really believe the VOA or any other individual or institution in America has the power to muzzle, censor, blackball or otherwise prevent any person in America from exercising their freedom of expression? Does he really believe he can intimidate the VOA into abandoning its legal duties and mandates and journalistic standards to accommodate his paranoid need for a complete and total news and information blackout in Ethiopia? How does one respond to the ignorantly arrogant and arrogantly ignorant?
Educating a Dictator: Freedom of Speech in America 101
The German literary figure Johann Wolfgang von Goethe observed, “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.” There is nothing more frightful to the system of American liberties than the insidious demand by Zenawi to gag, muzzle and blackball his critics in America and forever ban them from appearing on VOA programs and broadcasts. By making such an insolent and criminal demand, Zenawi showed not only his abysmal ignorance of the American Constitution and law but also struck a blow at the very heart of the most precious of all American liberties: freedom of speech and of the press. Zenawi’s blacklist for the suppression of the free speech rights of American citizens and others is no less threatening than an attack by Al-Qaeda on the American homeland. The only difference is that Al-Qaeda schemes to take American lives, Zenawi American liberties.
Free speech and the free press are the bedrock and cornerstones of American society. Free speech and the free press are what make America, America, and not prison nation Ethiopia. Without free speech and the free press, there is no America! What makes America different from any other nation in the world is her Bill of Rights of which the First Amendment – the right to expressive freedoms — is foremost, her fiercely independent judiciary and the American people’s unyielding commitment to individual freedom. Zenawi has the gall to demand an agency of the U.S. Government blacklist American citizens and others!
It is obvious that Zenawi needs a basic lesson in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is unquestionably the paramount element of the U.S. Constitution. It guarantees freedoms of religion, speech, writing and publishing, peaceful assembly, and the freedom to raise grievances with the Government. The constitutional language used in securing these rights is crystal-clear, sweeping, uncompromising and unambiguous: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” “No law” means no government official or institution has the power to restrict, censor, suppress, restrain, muzzle or blackball any American citizen or inhabitant of the U.S. from exercising their right to free speech or restrain the independent press from performing its institutional functions.
Political speech in America is sacred and given the highest level of constitutional protection. Any person in America has the right to publicly criticize, denounce, condemn and berate any government institution or leader with impunity. The right of Americans to criticize their government evolved over centuries of struggle for individual rights. Like Zenawi today, in 1735, long before the American Republic was established, the greedy and arrogant British Governor of New York, William Cosby, tried to prosecute newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger for badmouthing him (seditious libel). Cosby lost as Zenger was acquitted by a jury. Zenger’s case laid the foundation for press freedom in America.
In 1798, the Federalist Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts with the aim of punishing influential Republican newspaper editors and opposition leaders for badmouthing the president, Congress, or the government. Under the Act, a Congressman was convicted and imprisoned for calling President Adams a man who had “a continual grasp for power.” The Act expired in 1801 and President Jefferson pardoned the two dozen people convicted under that Act.
At the onset of the American Civil War in 1861, President Lincoln tried to silence his critics by suspending the right of citizens to challenge their detention (writ of habeas corpus) by military authorities. The Supreme Court struck down Lincoln’s order, and in a passionate defense of American liberties wrote:
By the protection of the law human rights are secured; withdraw that protection, and they are at the mercy of wicked rulers, or the clamor of an excited people… The nation…has no right to expect that it will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the principles of the Constitution. Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln; and if this [broad power of martial law] be conceded, the dangers to human liberty are frightful to contemplate.
Towards the end of WW I, Congress enacted the Sedition Act of 1918 with the aim of punishing communists, socialists, anarchists and anti-war protesters who criticized the United States government. The U.S. Supreme Court established the so-called “clear and present danger” test as an evidentiary standard in criminal prosecutions to determine if the speech in question presented a real and immediate danger to the public. That test proved useless and was abandoned.
For the last 50 years, the powers of the U.S. federal and state governments to regulate and interfere in freedom of speech and of press have been severely curtailed. Just in the past couple of months, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that interfered with the free speech rights of those on the outer fringes on American society. In one case, it ruled in favor of the right of a church group that protests at the funerals of soldiers and Marines killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The First Amendment protects even the rights of members of such a lunatic fringe determined to dishonor the memories of American heroes who gave up their lives to defend the free speech and protest rights of such a group.
In another case, the Court struck down a California law that sought to prohibit distastefully violent video games: “The First Amendment itself reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions on the Government outweigh the costs. Our Constitution forecloses any attempt to revise that judgment simply on the basis that some speech is not worth it.” Last year the Court ruled that corporations have the same free speech rights as natural persons holding: “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”
The jurisprudence of free speech and press and protection for dissenters and government critics has a long and honored tradition in America. In 1971, in the “Pentagon Papers” case, the U.S. government attempted and failed to prevent the New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing classified documents packed with damaging revelations about America’s conduct of the Vietnam War. In 1967, the State of New York attempted and failed to require state employees to declare their loyalty to the state or face dismissal from their jobs. In 1973, the Court upheld the right of individuals who have an interest in obscene material.
In 1989, the state of Texas attempted and failed in its efforts to criminalize the burning of the American flag in political protest. In 1992, the Supreme Court affirmed the free speech rights of hate-mongering Neo-Nazis and racist Klansmen. The government does not even have the power to discriminate against the viewpoints of this lunatic fringe. In 1997, the Supreme Court struck down indecency laws applying to the Internet keeping Congress out of regulation of the great equalizer: The Internet.
Zenawi may have been inspired by the short and sordid history of blacklisting in America. In the early 1950s, Senator Eugene McCarthy began a communist witch hunt by creating a blacklist of Americans suspected of communist ties and disloyalty. After falsely and recklessly accusing numerous individuals, McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954. He died no better than a skid row drunk in 1957.
President Nixon drew up a list of his critics in his “Political Enemies Project” in 1971. Nixon and his crew discussed “how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” Two years later, Nixon screwed himself and his crew out of a job when he resigned in total disgrace, and forty members of his administration were either indicted or jailed.
American presidents have been criticized, vilified and insulted not just by ordinary individuals but also the members of the press, opposition political leaders and the press. When Jimmy Carter talked about “ethnic purity”, Jesse Jackson slammed him for resorting to “Hitlerian racism.” The unions depicted and lashed out against President Ronald Reagan as the “enemy of working people”. The Libertarians reviled Reagan for being a “war monger.” Newsweek tagged President George Bush, Sr. a “wimp”. Bush felt so hurt by that label he commented on June 16, 1991: “You’re talking to the guy that had a cover of a national magazine, that I’ll never forgive, put that label on me.”
President George W. Bush, Jr. has been criticized, humiliated, vilified, ridiculed and everything else for his policies, personality, performance, mispronunciation of English words and for inventing his own “language” of “Bushism”. Members of the “Tea Party” have compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler and caricatured him in the image of all sorts of wild animals. A popular radio show host accused Obama of “planning a terrorist attack against the U.S.” Sara Palin accused Obama of “palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
The point is that there is not a damn thing American presidents can do to stop citizens from criticizing them, denouncing their policies, ridiculing their lifestyles or discrediting their ideas. That is the American way. If Zenawi thinks he can have the VOA blacklist and gag his critics in America, I would like to know on what planet he spends most of his time.
Blacklisting Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans in America: Potential Violations of American Law?
If the demand for blacklisting had been done by any branch of the U.S. government, state governments or any subdivision or agency of any government in the U.S. or any private individual, legal action could lie under 18 U.S.C. sections 241(conspiracy against rights) and 242 (deprivation of rights under color of law) and other federal criminal statutes prohibiting solicitation to commit a crime. There are also avenues for a private right of action in Federal Court for violation or attempted violation of a constitutional/civil right. Solicitation and attempt by a foreign government to deprive American citizens or inhabitants of the U.S. of constitutional/civil rights in the United States presents legal issues of the utmost seriousness.
Truth: The Dictators’ Nightmare
One of the great justices of the U.S. Supreme Court wrote: “Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” I say censorship reflects the lack of confidence of a leader who cannot defend his ideas or vision, if he ever had one. If Zenawi should take one lesson from everything that is written here, it is simply this: In America, everyone has the absolute right to express his/her political views on whatever issue they desire. Neither Congress, the President of the United States nor a dictator from Africa has the power to take that right away.
We live in the United States of America, not the Benighted States of America. Zenawi has silenced the voices of 80 million people in the Dystopia of Ethiopia he has created over the past 20 years. He will never be able to do what he has done in Ethiopia in the United States of America. Let all “wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law” take a lesson from history: “No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand.”
July 4, 2011
Today is July 4, 2011. Exactly 235 years ago, America declared its independence from colonial tyranny that flagrantly dispossessed Americans of their basic liberties: Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the right to a fair and speedy trial and more. It is the irony of ironies that 235 years later, another generation must rise up to defend these scared liberties against an African tyrant.
Long live freedom of speech and of the press in America and in Ethiopia!
Two young Ethiopian journalists, Woubishet Taye, Deputy Editor of Awramba Times, and Reyot Alemu, a columnist of Fetih newspaper, have been facing terrorism charges under the controversial “Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No.652/2009”. Coincidentally, it was only last week that the 547-seat Ethiopian Parliament, where the ruling party occupies all but two seats, officially named Al Qaida, Al Shabab, Ginbot 7, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), terrorist groups. The implication of that on journalists and government critics is that any news reports or commentaries on these groups can be deemed abetting, promoting, encouraging or endorsing the causes of terrorists.
In August 2009, Ethiopia’s “Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No.652/2009” entered into force with its publication in the Federal Negarit Gazeta. Since its inception, the elastic terrorism legislation has been dogged by controversy as it further criminalizes freedom of expression. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists, among many others, took turns to appeal to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to reconsider the legislation. But, as usual, Mr. Zenawi did not take his regular critics seriously.
Article 6 of the {www:proclamation} stipulates: “Whosoever publishes or causes the publication of a statement that is likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public to whom it is published as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to them to the commission or preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism… is punishable with {www:rigorous} imprisonment from 10 to 20 years.”
Freedom of the press, which has now been deliberately confused with terrorism, has a fascinating story in Ethiopia. After the fall of the Mengistu regime in May 1991, freedom, democracy, equality and justice were loudly declared by the new rulers in town. In his first televised address to an anxious nation waiting for change, Meles Zenawi assured Ethiopians that a transition to democracy was launched in earnest that would transform Ethiopia for the better.
“Our fellow countrymen, the era of the brutal military regime is over. Now is the beginning of a new chapter. It is an era of unfettered freedom. Our 17-year long armed struggle has completely destroyed tyranny, which will never come back to terrorize and haunt you again…never, never again,” the rulers announced at every opportunity and venue. The promise was undoubtedly too good to be true.
Realizing the fact that press freedom is one of the pillars of democracy, freedom of expression and thought was “guaranteed”, at least on paper. Newspapers mushroomed in Addis Ababa as soon as press freedom was declared in 1992. To the dismay of our liberators, however, daring journalists and ordinary citizens started “abusing” their new-found freedom. The critical stories and commentaries that were being published were too much for the liberators, who became victims of the freedom they declared. They needed to find a way to regulate the “free” press, a thought that gave birth to the 1992 Ethiopian Press Law, which critics referred to as {www:draconian} and oppressive.
For fear of backlashes, the publicly funded media outlets, including the only national TV station and the only national radio station have been protected from critics and divergent views. Consequently, the work of journalists and broadcasters working for the government media is too easy to be called a job. It is all positive news, paying homage to the rulers and congratulating them for their shining victories and successes.
The private press was the problem child that needed to be disciplined all the time. Zenawi appears to be convinced that “freedom of expression” needs a limit and journalists had to be muzzled and tethered so that they would not run amok. With that in mind, the courts started sending journalist to jails and imposing hefty fines that not even business tycoons could afford to pay. Human rights organizations and media freedom advocacy groups have given all kinds of bad names to Mr. Zenawi, whose commitment to regulating free press and violating human rights has been unwavering.
In the last 15 years, nearly 200 journalists, from the state-owned as well as the private press, have gone into exile. To their credit, a few journalists who have refused to leave their country have been courageously visiting jails now and then. Eskinder Nega holds the record for being jailed nine times since the days of his popular newspaper Ethiop. In the eyes of the regime, he is one of the most dangerous “terrorist journalists.” That is the very reason why his publishing license has been revoked. Sisay Agena is another terrorist journalist and winner of the 2010 PEN USA Freedom to Write Award who was jailed seven times. Sisay is now out of the country and unlikely to return home. If he chooses to do so, he will undoubtedly face charges of committing acts of terrorism.
The worst time for Ethiopia’s once fledgling private press was the aftermath of the disputed May 2005 elections. After security forces killed 193 civilians, wounded 789 and rounded up nearly 40,000 people, the crackdowns against dissent reached a climax. The story was underreported around the world. One of the few Western reporters who witnessed the brutal crackdowns, David Blair of the Daily Telegraph, wrote: “A crackdown on this scale has not been seen in Africa for 20 years and the repression exceeds anything by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for the past decade at least. Apartheid-era South Africa’s onslaught against the black townships in the 1980s provides the only recent comparison.”
Journalists, scholars and newspaper columnists have also been routinely facing accusations of committing capital crimes only for publishing or broadcasting news and opinions. Nearly 20 newspapers were closed down and close to 40 editors, journalists and critics were charged with high treason “genocide” and outrage against the constitution. The accused included five popular Voice of America Amharic service staff, two exiled website editors, Abraha Belai and Elias Kifle, who have never been to Ethiopia for nearly two decades. The wheelchair-bound professor and renowned philologist, Getatchew Haile, who is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the Genius Award, was also among those changed with capital crimes. Professor Getatchew left Ethiopia over three decades ago after an attempt on his life during the Mengistu regime but he is still committing the “capital crimes” by publishing his views on the Internet.
A couple of weeks ago, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an agency of the US Government that oversees all civilian international broadcasting of the United States, sent a delegation to Ethiopia to discuss with senior government officials issues related to the jamming of Voice of America Afaan Oromoo, Amharic and Tigrigna transmissions to Ethiopia. The jamming of all independent broadcasts including the Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) has particularly intensified after Mr. Zenawi told reporters in March 2010 that he would authorize jamming.
“We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its {www:wanton} disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda,” he said.
“We have to know before we make the decision to jam, whether we have the capacity to do it. But I assure you if they assure me at some future date that they have the capacity to jam it, I will give them the clear guideline to jam it,” Zenawi declared. Thanks to the Chinese government, the regime has now built a capacity to jam shortwave radio and satellite TV signals at the cost of millions of dollars.
VOA Amharic reported on its June 23rd broadcast that during the meeting the BBG delegation was given a lecture on the history of the Tigray People Liberation Front by Bereket Simon, Government Communication Affairs Minister. David Arnold, Chief of VOA’s Horn of Africa, said that Bereket Simon demanded VOA not to give platform to well-known critics such as Dr. Merara Gudina, Dr Birhanu Nega, Siye Abreha, Professor Beyene Petros, Professor Petros Milkias, Girma Moges, Getachew Metaferia and Ali Abdu. “The list goes on,” Arnold disclosed. (Needless to say, I am also said to be included in the long list.)
The amazing demand did not stop there. According to informed BBG insiders I talked to, Bereket Simon also urged VOA to fire respected broadcasters like Tizita Belachew, Addisu Abebe and Solomon Kifle. What is clear from the wish list of Meles Zenawi is the fact that his regime lacks a basic understanding of how civilized countries like United States operate. They do not seem to have a clue that the U.S. Constitution is sacrosanct and not even President Obama has the power to make Zenawi’s hopeless dreams come true.
When the five VOA broadcasters were charged with “genocide” and high treason in 2005, it was enough for White House to send the then U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Vicki Huddleston to Mr. Zenawi’s palace to have the charges dropped. Quite obviously, the Ambassador must have explained to Zenawi that the Voice of America is owned by the U.S. Government, which is ultimately responsible for the content of its broadcasts. Despite all that, Bereket Simon once more exposed nothing but the most serious problem that has been undermining the Meles regime, i.e. the fact that it suffers from deficit of common sense. Ignorance, especially when it is deliberately self-imposed in this time of enlightenment, is neither easy to treat nor expunge from the body politic.
The Anti-Terrorism Law was supposed to protect the nation from acts of terrorism. It beggars belief that the legislation safeguards our best interests by locking up journalists and government critics. Both journalists facing terrorist charges, Woubeshet Taye and Reyot Alemu, are widely recognized for writing sharply critical articles on corruption, human rights violations, discrimination, injustice and administrative {www:malfeasance}. According Shimeles Kemal, former prosecutor and currently one of Zenawi’s foolhardy spokesmen that have been objects of ridicule, the ring leader of the terrorist plot was the exiled journalist Elias Kifle, editor and publisher of EthiopianReview.com. Elias, an Ethiopian living in the U.S., has already been sentenced to death in absentia for publishing and distributing incitement against the government.
It appears that when dictators experience severe episodes of {www:paranoia}, they become extremely nervous and afraid of practically everything including their own shadows. Yes, it is quite understandable that “the pen is mightier than the sword”, as the English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton once said. In any case, that should not be translated to mean that journalists are terrorists, which seems to be the entrenched view of the regime.
George Orwell once said: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Given the fact that the “terrorist journalists” are benign, they must be released sooner rather than later, as the travesty will only backfire on the regime.
Former President Negasso Gidada has summed up the popular sentiment toward the terrorism legislation. “The law itself terrorizes citizens. We are strictly against it,” he told AFP.
Whatever the case, freedom of expression is not {www:tantamount} to terrorism. Ethiopians do not need to be protected from up-and-coming young and passionate journalists like Reeyot, who is one of the few female political commentators in Ethiopia. If they are terrorists, let us see the evidence other than the “self-incriminating” stories and articles they have written. As long as they are armed only with sharp pens, they will never harm a silenced nation like ours.
CPJ — The Ethiopian government Woyanne regime today publicly accused an editor and a columnist of involvement in a terrorism {www:plot}, according to news reports and local journalists. Woubshet Taye, deputy editor of the leading Awramba Times newspaper and Reeyot Alemu, columnist forthe weekly Feteh, have been held {www:incommunicado} under Ethiopia’s far-reaching anti-terrorism law since last week.
VIDEO
The anti-terrorism law criminalizes writing the government regime deems favorable to groups and causes it labels as “terrorists,” including banned political opposition party Ginbot 7. This is the first use of the law against journalists.
Today, government Woyanne spokesman Shimelis Kemal announced in a press conference in the capital, Addis Ababa, that Taye and Alemu were among nine people arrested on suspicion of organizing a terrorist network. The group was also accused of planning attacks on {www:infrastructure}, telecommunications, and power lines in the country, according to news reports. Kemal accused the nine of having links with an unnamed international terrorist group and Ethiopia’s neighbor, Eritrea, according to news reports. Neither journalist has yet been charged, pending investigations, according to Kemal.
“These accusations against Woubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu must be viewed in light of the Ethiopian Woyanne administration’s longstanding practice of using trumped-up charges to silence and jail critical independent journalists,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “It is outrageous that a government spokesman should publicly accuse journalists of terrorism when they have not been charged with any crime and are unable to respond because they are in detention. They should be freed immediately.”
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Kemal said the arrests of the two journalists had “nothing to do with viewpoints they have published.” Alemu had recently criticized the ruling party’s public fundraisingmethod for a major dam project on the Nile, and Tayehas critically covered local politics as the deputy editor of his newspaper.
Last week, Kemal told CPJ no journalists were incarcerated in Ethiopia, which is not true, according to CPJ research. Six journalists are currently behind bars in Ethiopia, two on vague criminal charges and four on vague terrorism accusations, including Taye and Alemu, according to CPJ research. Ethiopia is the second leading African jailer of journalists, behind Eritrea.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The deputy editor of Awramba Times, Woubshet Taye, who was arrested a week ago, June 19, may have been tortured by the interrogators at Maekelawi Prison, according to a family member.
It’s been 8 days since Woubshet has been picked up by heavily armed security forces and thrown in jail. So far no one has been allowed to visit him.
Another journalist, Reeyot Alemu, who was arrested last Monday, is also held {www:incommunicado}.
A relative of Woubshet told Ethiopian Review correspondent in Addis Ababa today that he fears Woubshet and the other prisoners are being tortured and urged press right groups to speak out on their behalf.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has issued a statement condemning the arrests of Woubshet and Reeyot.
Since Friday, June 17, the Woyanne junta has been rounding up journalists and hundreds of suspected dissidents in a new wave of arrests.
(This is the second installment in a series of commentaries I pledged to offer on U.S. policy in Africa under the heading “The Moral Hazard of U.S. Policy in Africa”. In Part I, I argued that democracy and human rights in Africa cannot be subordinated to the expediency of “engaging” incorrigible African dictators whose sole interest is in clinging to power to enrich themselves and their cronies.)
African Status Quo Broken
When U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made a brief stop at the African Union summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia a couple of weeks ago, she was talking my language: human rights, democracy, rule of law, accountability, transparency and the rest of it. She announced to the coterie of African dictators that the “status quo had broken” and she had come to talk to them about how they can regain democracy, achieve economic growth, and maintain peace and security.
Clinton said democracy in Africa is undergoing trial by fire despite a few successes in places like “Botswana, Ghana, and Tanzania.” She told the swarm of jackbooted African dictators that their people are gasping for democracy: “[W]e do know that too many people in Africa still live under longstanding rulers, men who care too much about the longevity of their reign, and too little about the legacy that should be built for their country’s future. Some even claim to believe in democracy – democracy defined as one election, one time.” She said Africa’s youth are sending a “message that is clear to us all: The status quo is broken; the old ways of governing are no longer acceptable; it is time for leaders to lead with accountability, treat their people with dignity, respect their rights, and deliver economic opportunity. And if they will not, then it is time for them to go.” The alternative for Africa’s “long standing rulers who hold on to power at all costs, who suppress dissent, who enrich themselves and their supporters at the expense of their own people” is to face the types of “changes that have recently swept through North Africa and the Middle East. After years of living under dictatorships, people have demanded new leadership; in places where their voices have long been silenced, they are exercising their right to speak, often at the top of their lungs.”
U.S. Sounding Like a Broken Record
For some time now, President Obama, Secretary Clinton and other top U.S. officials have been doing the same song and dance about dictatorship and poor governance in Africa. In July 2009 in Ghana, President Obama declared, “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.” Today Secretary Clinton says: “Good governance requires free, fair, and transparent elections, a free media, independent judiciaries, and the protection of minorities.”
Two years ago, President Obama lectured African dictators: “No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.” Today Secretary Clinton sarcastically notes, “Too many people in Africa still live under longstanding rulers… [who] believe in democracy – democracy defined as one election, one time.”
Two years ago, President Obama berated African dictators: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history.” Today Secretary Clinton warns the same dictators, “If you do not desire to help your own people work and live with dignity, you are on the wrong side of history.”
Two years ago, President Obama threatened African dictators: “I have directed my administration to give greater attention to corruption… People everywhere should have the right to start a business or get an education without paying a bribe. We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don’t, and that is exactly what America will do.” Today Secretary Clinton pleads with the same dictators: “We are making [corruption] a priority in our diplomatic engagement, and we look to our partners to take concrete actions to stop corruption.”
Last year, President Obama told a delegation of African youths: “Africa’s future belongs to its young people… We’re going to keep helping empower African youth, supporting education, increasing educational exchanges… and strengthen grassroots networks of young people…” Today Secretary Clinton laments, “A tiny [African] elite prospers while most of the population struggles, especially young people…”
When it comes to Africa, the Obama Administration is increasingly sounding like a broken record.
Empty Words and Emptier Promises
The U.S. has been talking a good talk in Africa for the last two years, but has not been walk the walk; better yet, walking the talk. Following the May 2010 “elections” in Ethiopia in which dictator Meles Zenawi claimed a 99.6 percent victory, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley said, “We value the cooperation that we have with the Ethiopian government on a range of issues including regional security, including climate change. But we will make clear that there are steps that it needs to take to improve democratic institutions.” The U.S. “clearly” took no action as Ethiopia has become a veritable police state behind a veneer of elections.
Following the rigged elections in Uganda in February 2011, Crowley said, “Democracy requires commitment at all levels of government and society to the rule of law, freedom of speech and assembly, independent media, and active civil society.” The U.S. promptly congratulated Yoweri Museveni on his election victory and conveniently forgot about the rule of law and all that stuff.
Following the elections in Cote d’Ivoire last November and Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to step down (calling it a “mockery of democracy”) Crowley said, “The U.S. is prepared to impose targeted sanctions on Ivory Coast’s incumbent President Gbagbo, his immediate family and his inner circle, should he continue to illegitimately cling to power.” The U.S. imposed a travel ban, but that did not matter much since Gbagbo had no intention of leaving the Ivory Coast. Months later he was collared and dragged out of his palace like a street criminal.
In July 2009, the White House in a press statement said, “The United States is concerned about the recent actions of Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja to rule by ordinance and decree and to dissolve the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court as part of a bid to retain power beyond his constitutionally-limited mandate.” The U.S. took no action against Tandja, but Niger’s military did.
A couple of weeks ago, Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon visited the U.S. and received a warm reception at the White House which put out a press statement applauding the “the important partnership between the United States and Gabon on a range of critical regional and global issues.” Ali is the son of the notorious Omar Bongo who ruled Gabon with an iron fist for 42 years before his death in 2009.
Not long ago, Crowley called Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea a “dictator with a disastrous record on human rights.” Nguema’s son, Teodorin frequently travels to his $35 million-dollar mansion in Malibu, California flying in his $33 million jetliner and tools around town in a fleet of luxury cars. He earned a salary of $6,799 a month as agriculture minister. Forbes estimates his net worth at $600 million.
America Should Stop Subsidizing African Kleptocracies
The U.S. should stop subsidizing African kleptocratic thugtatorships through its aid policy and hit the panhandling thieves in the pocketbook. In one of my weekly commentaries in November 2009 (“Africorruption, Inc.”), I argued that the business of African governments is corruption. Most African “leaders” seize political power to operate sophisticated criminal enterprises to loot their national treasuries and resources. As Geroge Ayittey, the distinguished Ghanaian economist and arguably one of the “top 100 public intellectuals worldwide who are shaping the tenor of our time” recently noted, Africa’s “briefcase bandits” run full-fledged criminal enterprises. Sani Abacha of Nigeria amassed $5 billion, and the Swiss Supreme Court in 2005 declared the Abacha family a “criminal enterprise”. Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan has stashed away $7 billion while Hosni Mubarak is reputed to have piled a fortune of $40 billion. In comparison, Ayittey says, “The net worth of 43 U.S. presidents from Washington to Obama amounts to a measly $2.5 billion.”
Foreign aid is known as the perfect breeding ground for corruption in Africa.According to the Brussels Journal (“Voice of Conservatism in Europe”), “Most serious analysts of the failures of development aid [in Africa], including a number of government commissions, not only identified corruption in recipient governments as a reason the aid programs failed but, in fact, found the projects actually fueled additional corruption and increased the plight of the people.” Africa’s thugtators not only siphon off foreign aid targeted for critical school, hospital, road and other public works and community projects to line their pockets, they also use the aid they receive to fortify their regimes and suppress the democratic aspiration of the people. In its October 2010 report on Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch reported:
Foreign aid has become one of the government’s most effective tools in suppressing and punishing criticism. Human Rights Watch’s research found that local officials often deny assistance to people they perceive as political opponents – including many who are not actually involved in politics at all. Impoverished farmers know they risk losing access to aid which their livelihoods depend on if they speak out against abuses in their communities. Most respond by staying quiet; aid discrimination has made freedom of speech a luxury many Ethiopians quite literally cannot afford.
Simply stated, an endless supply of the hard earned cash of American Joe and Jane Taxpayer is making it possible for African thugtators to cling to power and crush the legitimate aspirations of African peoples. The thugtators know that as long as billions of American taxpayer dollars (free money) keep flowing into their pockets, they do not have to do a darn thing to improve governance, respect human rights or institute accountability and transparency.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a gathering of African dictators in Uganda in 2010 that “the U.S. Department of Justice is launching a new Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative aimed at combating large-scale foreign official corruption and recovering public funds for their intended and proper use.” More power to Holder. It is great to grab the corrupt and thieving African dictators and their cronies in the U.S. as they launder hundreds of millions of dollars every year buying businesses and homes and making “investments”. But it is more important to hold them accountable for the billions of aid dollars they receive from U.S. every year.
If the Obama administration is committed to battling corruption as ‘one of the great struggles of our time’, as it has so often declared, it needs to undertake a thorough and complete investigation of aid money given to African dictators. In November 2009, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelley stated that the U.S. is investigating allegations that “$850 million in food and anti-poverty aid from the U.S. is being distributed on the basis of political favoritism by the current [Ethiopian] prime minister’s party.” There exists no official report in the public domain today concerning the outcome of that investigation. (If any such report exists, we are prepared to scrutinize it.) In the absence of evidence to the contrary, one must logically assume that no one for sure knows what happened to the USD$850 million handed over to Zenawi. Since the State Department does not seem to be up to the job of investigating aid-related corruption allegations in Ethiopia, it is appropriate for the General Accounting Office (the independent nonpartisan Congressional watchdog) to undertake a full investigation of the Human Rights Watch allegations.
When the U.S. hands out billions of dollars of free money to countries like Ethiopia without any meaningful accountability and discernable performance requirements, the effect on governance and observance of human rights is disastrous as evidenced in the fact that Zenawi used American aid money to suppress dissent and steal elections in 2010. In Ethiopia, where aid constitutes more than 90% of the government budget, establishing the scope of corruption in aid is absolutely necessary. Such accountability could have a huge impact not only on improving governance in Ethiopia but also in all other U.S. aid recipient countries on the continent.
Corruption is fundamentally a human rights issue. As Peter Eigen, founder and chairman of Transparency International has argued:
Corruption leads to a violation of human rights in at least three respects: corruption perpetuates discrimination, corruption prevents the full realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights, and corruption leads to the infringement of numerous civil and political rights. Beyond that, corruption undermines the very essence of the rule of law and destroys citizens’ trust in political leaders, public officials and political institutions.”
By turning a blind eye to endemic aid-related corruption, the U.S. is unintentionally promoting disregard for human rights protections and undermining the growth of democratic institutions and institutionalization of the rule of law and good governance in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. When foreign aid provides 90 percent of the regime’s budget in Ethiopia, is it any wonder that Zenawi’s regime “won” the May 2010 “elections” by 99.6 percent?
As the old saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I regret to say that aid given to Africa with the best of intentions in the name of the most generous people in the history of the world has made the continent a heaven for bloodthirsty dictators and hell for the vast majority of poor Africans. I wonder if the American people would tolerate and approve of the the crimes that are being committed in Africa using their hard earned dollars year after year if we took it upon ourselves to educate them!
