Two weeks ago, Ethiopia’s khat-addicted tyrant Meles Zenawi sent a 35-member high level delegation to North America to promote his new gimmick, “Growth and Transformation Plan” “Grand Theft Plan” (GTP). The dictator who cannot stay one week in power without foreign aid has spent close to a million dollars for the 14-city tour in the U.S. and Canada involving 35 government officials and the 10 “journalists” who accompanied. In every city they visited, the delegates were confronted by protesters, and in Washington DC and Los Angeles, they were forced to cancel their meetings. The tour was a major public relations disaster for the decayed regime.
The two senior TPLF members, Berhane Gebrekirstos and Arkebe Equbai, who led the delegation were particularly shaken by the intensity of the protests and accused Girma Birru and other non-TPLF diplomats of not doing enough preparations. It is now rumored that Girma’s days as Woyanne ambassador to the U.S. are numbered.
Girma and the other puppet diplomats are in a quandary since they have little say to begin with. It is the TPLF cadres at the embassies who are the decision makers. In Girma’s case, he reports to Wahde Belay, a TPLF cadre whose official position is head of public relations, but in reality he is the real ambassador who gives orders to Girma and every one at the embassy.