Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi has held talks with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer on the upcoming African Union summit in Khartoum and Ethiopia-Eritrea border situations, officials said Saturday.
Meles and Frazer on Friday discussed the future relations between the United States and the AU, and the AU summit to be held on Monday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum as well, among others, according to a spokesperson of Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry.
After talks with Meles, the U.S. diplomat plans to attend the AU summit.
The two sides deliberated on Ethiopia-Eritrea border situations and the practical application of the UN Security Council’s resolution 1640, adopted on November 23, 2005, in particular, said the spokesperson.
They also consulted on things that the U.S. government and international community need to do to resolve the Ethiopia-Eritrea border dispute, he said.
They also exchanged views on the prevailing situations in Ethiopia, particularly the activities being made to further enhance democracy and ensure the supremacy of law in the country during post-election period.
Meles and Frazer also discussed the bilateral cooperation and relations between Ethiopia and America. They deliberated ways of enhancing U.S. support to Ethiopia.
On Thursday, Frazer traveled to northern Ethiopia to visit the border with Eritrea on a curtailed mediation mission intended to ease tensions and avert a potential new war between the arch- rivals after Asmara snubbed her plans to visit.
From 1998 to 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war, in which 70,000 people were killed. Since July 2001, a UN peacekeeping force, which now numbers about 3,000 troops and observers, has been patrolling a buffer zone separating the two countries’ militaries.
In recent months, tensions have grown with renewed military buildup along the Ethiopia-Eritrea border.
The United States considers Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa’s top military power, a key counter-terrorism ally in the area.
The United States has said it will not follow other donors in withholding aid to Ethiopia over a government crackdown on opposition supporters, and will not cut the 600 million dollars it is giving for development and fighting HIV/AIDS.
ER Dec 30 – The 48-hour vigil that started yesterday has ended today after State Department officials left early for the New Year holiday. The participation was greater than anticipated by the organizers. There will be more vigils like this in the coming few days.
Dec 30, 8:40 AM – A large number of Ethiopians continue holding a vigil in front of the U.S. State Department at this hour. They are showing support to the brave Ethiopians at home who are fighting for their freedom against the U.S.-backed fascist regime of Meles Zenawi.
Dec 29, 10:50 PM – The vigil in front of the State Department in Washington DC is going strong. It’s dark, windy and cold, but several determined Ethiopians are sending a message of solidarity to the brave fellow Ethiopians back home who are fighting for their freedom. The vigil continues through out the night.
ER Dec 29, 6:00 PM – It’s getting dark now in Washington DC. Several Ethiopians are holding a 48-hour vigil in front of the State Department. So far it was a cold, rainy day. The vigil will continue through out the night. The participants are saying this is the least they can do to express their solidarity with the brave students and teachers at home who are facing bullets and sticks.
ER Dec 29, 1:52 PM – The 48-hour Vigil continues in front of the State Department. The rain has stopped now. A State Department official met with representatives of the protestor earlier.
Western donors are considering withholding millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia, after a recent crackdown on the opposition and the press. The sum of $375m in direct funding for Ethiopian government programmes is reported to be under review.
More than 80 opposition leaders and journalists were in court in Addis Ababa this week, charged with conspiring to overthrow the government.
Aid donors’ frustration with Ethiopia’s government has grown in recent months.
In an interview with the BBC, the European Union’s representative in Ethiopia, Timothy Clarke, said the EU was delaying some aid payments, although no formal decision to stop these had yet been taken.
Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufyan Ahmad told the BBC he was confident aid would not be reduced – and even if it was, this would have little effect on the overall budget, he said.
May’s election was the most closely contested in Ethiopian history, and resulted in the opposition winning more than 100 seats in parliament.
But the opposition believed they had been cheated of victory, and took to the streets. The clashes left many dead – and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accusing the opposition of attempting to overthrow his government.
Western governments tried to bring the parties together, but with limited success.
The opposition leaders, reporters and aid workers appeared in court on Wednesday a month after their arrest – complaining that they had not been allowed access to their lawyers.
Snub
In November the British ambassador to Ethiopia, Bob Dewar, put out a strong statement on behalf of the European Union and the United States.
It called for respect for human rights, an end to mass arrests, the lifting of restrictions on the opposition and for the freeing of political detainees.
But a spokesman for the European Commission told the BBC the Ethiopian government had failed to reply to the statement, and therefore hundreds of millions of dollars of funding were now being reviewed.
The money involved had been earmarked for budget support.
These funds can be used at the discretion of the Ethiopian government, and is not tied to specific projects.
No final decision has been made.
But although the money would be missed by the Ethiopian authorities, it is unlikely that food aid, which regularly feeds around five million of the country’s poorest people, will be touched, says the BBC’s Martin Plaut.
Sentences
Under Ethiopian law, the possible sentences on some 130 people facing charges linked to election-related violence for the various offences range from three years’ imprisonment to the death penalty.
“The prison administration has denied us access to our lawyers to discuss the gravity of the charges. I have nothing to say,” Hailu Shawel, chairman of the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), told the court, Reuters news agency reports.
Another CUD defendant, a lawyer, urged the judge to release them on bail, saying it was their right under Ethiopia’s constitution.
“We are all responsible people with no criminal record and are leaders. (We) request the court to grant us bail,” Yenenhe Mulatu said.
The opposition is made up of the two broad groupings – the CUD and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces.
Donors are to withhold direct budgetary support worth about $375m (€317m £218m) from Ethiopia following the government’s brutal crackdown on opposition supporters last month, western development officials said yesterday.
Until the situation improves, the donors – which include the World Bank, the European Union and the UK – will look to disburse the funds in other ways to continue tackling the country’s massive poverty challenges, Ishac Diwan, the World Bank’s country director, said.
The move is a further blow to the credibility of Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, who was once regarded as a visionary African leader and was appointed to the UK’s Commission for Africa.
“Because of the situation, trust has broken down so we are trying to find other ways of doing it (funding),” another western development official said.
At least 46 people were killed and thousands detained during several days of politically motivated violence in the capital in November. Some 40 others were killed in similar clashes in June, which erupted after disputed elections in May.
More than 100 people, including opposition leaders and journalists were charged last week with treason, genocide and other offences, despite calls from donors that political detainees should be released.
Opposition groups made unprecedented gains at the elections, but later alleged the process was rigged and called for peaceful protests. The government blamed the opposition for the violence and used extreme force to put down rioters, deploying huge numbers of police, as well as soldiers armed with sniper rifles, on the capital’s streets.
The heavy-handed manner in which the supposedly-reformist government handled the crisis shocked many and raised serious concerns about Mr Meles’s democratic credentials.
The quandary for donors, who pump about $1bn in development aid into the country annually, is how to be seen to be taking a tough stance towards the government while at the same time continuing to work to alleviate poverty in the impoverished nation.
“We are very concerned and have taken principled positions, along with our development partners, on the recent disturbances,” Mr Diwan said. “It’s a very important issue today in several African countries: how to at the same time get good economic growth and improvements in governance in order to achieve sustainable development.”
Despite the crisis, Ethiopia was one of 19 countries the International Monetary Fund approved 100 per cent debt relief for last week – part of an agreement reached by the Group of Eight nations to cancel multilateral debt to the world’s poorest nations.
The IMF, to which Ethiopia owed $161m, makes its decisions based on macroeconomic stability, not governance issues. The World Bank, to which Ethiopia owes about $3.5bn, is due to announce its decision on debt relief next year.
The popular uprising in Ethiopia against the fascist regime of Meles Zenawi continues today. Most high schools in Addis Ababa and other cities are closed. Students at Wondyrad and Abiyot Qirs high schools staged a protest rally today. Troops shot at students at Wondyrad school in Kotebe. A nationwide peaceful protest has been called for next Wednesday.
On Thursday December 22nd, police entered Felege Edget and Fasiludus schools in the early morning hours and waited for students to arrive. The unsuspected students gathered in their respective school compounds as usual before classes begin. The students were taken by surprise when a large number of troops emerged out of their hiding and charged towards them. The troops blocked all exits and started to savagely torture the students. They were beaten with large sticks and forced to kneel down on their knees and crawl on sharp rocks covered with blood. The troops broke the arms and legs of many of the students. The torture was so intense that some students fainted from massive blood loss and severe body injuries. There are reports that unknown number of students were murdered. Eye witnesses have seen military pick ups taking students to unknown locations. Residents of the city saw the incidents from a distance in great horror.
On Monday December 26th, the authorities announced that all schools are closed in Gonder for one week. The authorities have called for a mandatory parent meeting in all the Kebele associations to discuss the escalating unrest in the city. Authorities have started to warn parents that they will face severe consequences, including beating and imprisonment, unless they report any suspicious activity by children.
