Protest and Government Response in Ethiopia

A snippet of the 14 year experience

It seems every week there is a new low that EPRDF's “revolutionary democracy” takes us to. This week, the regime has turned its face on high school students and kids from elementary schools. Instead of peacefully handling the public protest and listening to what the people are telling it, the regime is bent on imprisoning everyone that is vocal about the regime’s now bankrupt claims of legitimacy. If the authorites only took a moment to think and learn from their 14 year experience, it would have been apparent that the path they have chosen can not lead to a possible solution.

EPRDF's prescription to the latest protests is hardly new. Since its rise to power, the party has made it its job to destroy its peaceful opponents either by using pseudo-legal procedures, sheer brute force or a combination of the two. Since 1991 a large number of people have been abused, detained or have disappeared after detention under EPRDF’s watch.

In 1992 when the OLF left the transitional government, its members, supporters as well as sympathizers suffered at the hands of the regime, some even permanently disappeared. This trend has continued and there have been many documented cases of human rights abuses, including killings and disappearances, perpetrated against the Oromo people, whose legitimate aspiration to power in Ethiopia has been usurped by the TPLF and its creation the OPDO.

In January 1993, Students at AAU were protesting the planned referendum for Eritrea when they were met with bullets. Officialy one death was reported, but students were severly wounded, stabbed and beaten. The university closed for three months. A few months later the President of the University Dr. Alemayehu Tefera was arrested and held incommunicado for over ten years until his release in 2003. Forty one professors lost their jobs when a new government appointed university administration took over.

In 1994 when the AAPO posed peaceful challenges to it, EPRDF responded by charging and imprisoning AAPO members including the leader and founder of the organization Professor Asrat Woldeyes, alleging he incited armed rebellion against the government. He was held in conditions that exacerbated his medical conditions and later led to his death. In 1996 it was Dr. Taye Woldesemayat’s turn, then President of the independent Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA) which the government had tried to disband and an outspoken critic of government policies. He was accused of an armed conspiracy against the government, and thrown in jail. In 1997, Ato Assefa Maru, a leading member of ETA and a human rights activist, was assassinated by armed security officers in broad day light.

In 2001, when University students protested for academic freedom they were met with a similar fate as in 1993. This time the protests quickly spread to the neglected urban neighborhoods of Addis where unemployment is rampant and dissatisfaction with EPRDF is high. Protests quickly turned violent and EPRDF responded with brute force arresting well over 3000. More than thirty people lost their lives. Professor Mesfin Woldemariam and Dr. Berhanu Nega were imprisoned at the time over charges of inciting violence and creating anarchy - all they did was to talk to students about their rights enshrined in the constitution.

In 2002, many towns in Oromia also witnessed protests by high school students against education and economic policies, the government responded in its usual fasion. Officially five deaths were reported, hundreds more were arrested. The atrocities committed in Gambella in late 2003 which we touched upon in our last post left well over 400 people dead according to HRW. In 2004, the regime cracked down on the Metcha and Tulma welfare organization fabricating charges of terrorism on the part of the prominent Oromo welfare association that has existed since the 1960s. Human Rights Watch calls these charges unfounded. The regime's treatment of journalists over the years has been a matter of much discussion and is extensivly documented with RSF.

The mass arrests, beatings, and killings of 2005 are still fresh in our minds.

We have tried to compile here only some of those events which have been highly publicized. There are many more that we have not mentioned or touched upon. As time passes and one atrocity gets seconded by another, the human mind loses count and those atrocities that happened early on start to fade from memory. Fortunately, EHRCO as well as international Human Rights Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented the repeated abuses and excessive use of force by the current regime to destroy any opposition to it.

Prior to 2005, EPRDF’s constant self promotion, control of information especially from rural areas and the western media’s celebration of its leader also worked to temper the regime’s image. Western governments also fanned the idea that EPRDF at the top levels was committed to human rights. The regime and its western patrons usually agreed that human rights abuses could mainly be blamed on local officials or on the now tired excuse “lack of democratic culture”. Just after the polls in 2005 and before the brutal crackdowns in June, the Prime Minister himself had declared on national TV that all security personnel will be under his direct command. This time around he has no one else to blame.

The people of Ethiopia deserve much, much better than what EPRDF has brought them. Let us all hope that the New Year brings some good things to Ethiopia.

Pictures were originally posted at Ethiopia First News Page.

Oil: Prospects and Dangers for Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s geopolitical importance is increasing due to its potential as an oil and natural gas producing country, at least for domestic consumption. Furthermore its large population size also marks it as a potentially large market for energy products. As oil prices go up, many exploration projects in Ethiopia which were deemed too expensive in the past have become viable investment opportunities. We thought it was appropriate to develop a political perspective on this issue in the face of recent declarations by Asian companies that they would start oil exploration and prospecting in Gambella.

The first issue of concern is the political structure under which this exploration would occur. Since political organization is the most direct means of accessing power, and consequently resources, it is highly questionable if a politically illegitimate government such as the EPRDF should be given the mandate to write the initial contracts for oil exploration thus establishing precedence. It seems to us that we are headed for a condition which is not too far in form from that found in Nigeria.

Just over a month ago on November 10th the Ogoni ethnic group in Nigeria celebrated the 10th anniversary of the execution of their leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. The cause for the execution was the request from the Ogoni that they get the basic minimum of infrastructure, considering that the oil is on their land. Royal Dutch Shell shut down the pumps in that area since those controversies but it still pumps oil across the delta with more rebellions arising while the Ogoni still live without roads, electricity or running water.

This case is highly relevant to today’s Ethiopia, and the Gambella region in particular, as most of the elements that exacerbated the situation in Nigeria can be found in Ethiopia too. The first and most important of these is ethnic politics. To claim that ethnic groups have close to full control over their destiny but persistently deny them those rights is a formula for never ending conflicts. EPRDF has made promises to Ethiopia’s ethnic groups that no nation in Africa can keep and consequently established the basis for impending disaster.

Secondly, EPRDF has shown a propensity to prevent the fair distribution of resources within the country and this will also present a glaring expropriation that will surely blow up if oil revenues were to be high enough. Thirdly and critically, EPRDF has shown a willingness to give highly favorable contracts to its ‘international friends’ for narrow personal and crony advantages that could make Nigeria’s oil contracts look heavenly when compared to Ethiopia’s. The lack of transparency in the way EPRDF operates would only work to make citizen’s confidence in the contracts extremely low.

Had EPRDF been a nationalist government that was abusive but had the interests of Ethiopia at heart, it might have been possible to overlook these issues for the sake of expediency. In the past six months however, it has been established that EPRDF has very little legitimacy to rule the country. Moreover much evidence has been presented as to its ‘agent’ like behavior and recklessness with issues of concern to us common folk. Adding oil revenue to this mix seems to us to be an unwise formula. Even if Ethiopia were to become a major oil producer, under EPRDF our reality will not resemble the subsidy societies that one sees in the gulf. It is much more likely to be a clone to that of Nigeria; one of cronyism, corruption and grinding poverty.

For more on the the human rights abuses in Gambella please see the Human Rights Watch report and also Keith Snow's article on Zmag in June of 2004.

Almost Sunday...

Not even a week has passed since this post and there is news that Mega publishing is being liquidated.

It is already the week’s end and we haven’t had time to write anything since Monday, so instead of letting the week slip by without an additional post, we thought we would put in a plug for two books on Ethiopia.

The first is Survival and Modernization, written by Messay Kebede – some of you may have taken classes with him while at AAU or may be familiar with his writings*. While not entirely an easy read [it is after all a philosophical discourse], the paradigm the book takes on Ethiopian history and the failure to modernize is one which we find our selves agreeing with. This book is strongly recommended.

The second book which we recently came across is Hagai Erlich’s Ras Alula and The Scramble for Africa - a political biography of Ras Alula Aba Nega. A very well documented, short and easy to read biography of the great Ras; it tells the story a man from humble beginnings, whose loyalty, bravery and military genius enabled him to become one of the most powerful men in the country. It also gives insight into the history of late 1800s Ethiopia - the internal struggles for power, the external relations with Britain, Italy, Egypt and the Mahdis and how the interaction of the internal and external pressures play out on the political scene of the time. Both books are available from Amazon.

While on the subject of book availability --- On a recent visit to Addis, we were dismayed that EPRDF owned publisher and bookseller Mega Books (previously Kuraz) no longer offered many of the history books it previously carried. We went mainly looking for the ‘Ye Ethiopia Andinet’** series by Tekle Tsadik Mekuria. We also wanted to get copies of the compiled works of Birhanu Zerihun - We found neither. Much to our dismay we also did not find any work of Ethiopian history on the shelves [we were pleased to find new editions of some of the works of Kebede Mikael in store and a book on the history of aviation in Ethiopia by Capt. Mekonen Beri - Aviation be Ethiopia].

Our first instinct was that the absence of history books was politically motivated; aimed to discourage certain perspectives of Ethiopian history***…however, after a short discussion with the staff, they said it was because the authors or families of the authors (who have become the bearers of the copyright) have not authorized reprints. Though there is no way for us to know if this is in fact the case, if you know authors or families of authors whose books are no longer in print, please ask if they could authorize reprints.

+++++++Two more books we felt should be included in the list++++++

Bahru Zewde's A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991 is an excellent, concise book mainly covering the time from the end of Zemene Mesafint (Era of Princes) and the rise of Tewodros to the demise of the Derg in 1991 (includes quite a few pictures too). You should have this on your shelf.

Also, if you are interested in the who-is-who of Ethiopian literature, Black Lions: The Creative Lives of Modern Ethiopia's Literary Giants and Pioneers offers short biographies on thirty two personalities.

* Here are a few we readily found online:
1. Ethnic Politics and the Cracks in the Dry Ground of the TPLF
2. The Rise of Ethiopian Nihilism and the Plight of Addis Ababa University
3. Assab or How to Make the Best of a Predicament
4. Guilt and Atonement: The Genesis of Revolutionary Spirit in Ethiopia
5. Bringing Reason Back to Ethiopian Politics

**The books in this series are (all in Amharic)
Atse Tewodros ena Ye Ethiopia Andinet, Atse Yohannes ena Ye Ethiopia Andinet, and Atse Menelik ena Ye Ethiopia Andinet

***While we feel our suspicion is justified because of EPRDF’s constant attempts to reinterpret and discourage the classical view of Ethiopian history; for an interesting and humorous take on the suspicious Ethiopian mind, we recommend Hama Tuma’s Of Paranoia and the Ethiopian Psyche.

Propaganda 101 for Dummies

Propaganda is the systematic propagation of information reflecting the views of those advocating a given cause. In its 21st century form, this is done in such a way as to make the information seem natural and without the need to declare the cause explicitly. We thought we should comment on an interesting website that we discovered and how its propaganda system works. We chose hmbasha because it seemed unique in its approach and because of our disagreement with them as to the qualities of their intended audience.

The internet has turned into a virtual war zone for the Ethiopian community. The 1998 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea was probably the first major event that turned the internet into a space which allowed the Diaspora from both countries to participate in the conflict in real-time. At times the internet activity even influenced major policy by representing a non-scientific thermometer of public opinion. In the ensuing seven years the importance of the virtual political space has increased dramatically, making the internet one of the most important elements in the present Ethiopian political turmoil.

As such it should not surprise us that the EPRDF government propaganda units have penetrated the Ethiopian virtual community in force and, although we can not say for sure, it appears hmbasha is one such effort. The uniqueness of the website is that its administrators see a persistent need to explain their articles in distinctly bold foot notes below almost every posting. Even though the website makes full use of standard propaganda techniques in how they select articles and in their website layout, the fact that they see a need to explain all their articles implies something very disturbing.

We are convinced that the intended audience for this website is groups who are already supporters of the present ruling class in Ethiopia. The article foot notes seem to have the purpose of explaining to this audience what the significance of the selected articles is and how to understand them. We have chosen to assume that the comprehension abilities of the intended audience are actually much higher than what the hmbasha administrators assume. Most people are astute enough to understand the implication of most news items and how they relate to various interests in Ethiopia, especially when the articles are chosen for such a narrow agenda as hmbasha’s.

There is generally no need to explain the propaganda because that act itself defeats the purpose of persuasion by making the website into an opinion blog. The way in which hmbasha presents articles has given it the appearance of a school for cadre types whose desire is not information but education from higher cadres about how to read select materiel. If hmbasha wishes to be seen as a serious news-based website of a given political persuasion it will need to elevate its assumption of its audiences’ intelligence and limit its propaganda to news selection. Not doing so will mean that either hmbasha administrators have an impeccable understanding of the intelligence and comprehension abilities of their intended audience or that they need to go back to propaganda school for some basic training.

Still Thinking...

International Community Continues to Think about Thinking about Doing Something!

According to anonymous sources, the level of anger and disappointment in western capitals has reached such a high point, that the west has vigorously continued to think about thinking about sanctioning Meles. This is complicated, said our anonymous source, “what policy makers appear to be thinking about itself requires a lot of thinking”. Diplomatic sources also indicated that this is a major development and that it would put Meles in a predicament saying “Meles himself should start thinking about getting worried.”

The sources also indicated that they wished donors would not have to move to the next step, as that could carry serious consequences. “Imagine what actually thinking about sanctions can do” said one source without explaining further. He also said that the process is still in its early stages and that the west is reluctant to press hard as further developments could have detrimental effects. However, he also stressed that the level of commitment should not be underestimated, as the several interviews and foreign ministry press releases have demonstrated recently. As an example, he recalled what U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Mr. Donald Yamamoto recently said in an interview – that he cared about Ethiopia and that he flies to Ethiopia quiet often. “This is big and dandy!” the source stressed.

Other western sources seemed to agree and said that in the mean time, the Ethiopian people should feel some comfort about these developments. Trying to appease the Ethiopian populace, western diplomats also said they are committed to putting out statements that give the impression that they are actually doing something about the crisis. In the mean time, they said they were seriously pondering every aspect of the worrying developments in Ethiopia.

We Deserve Aid

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi hit a new low this week by publicly declaring 'We deserve Aid' in an interview with British TV Channel 4. We felt so embarrassed by the statement that we thought this was a good opportunity to distance the Ethiopian people from it while attempting to understand exactly what he meant by it. This statement seems like it was a Freudian slip from the ‘Bon Vivant’ of The Economist, albeit a slip that exposed what appears to be a spoilt beggar.

In common English the word ‘deserve’ is used to imply reward for some earned achievement that one is worthy of. What exactly does the prime minister believe he has accomplished to deserve aid? Could it be the achievement of drowning us into more poverty than when he found us a decade and a half ago? The number of people declared to be in need of food aid outpaces population growth implying that the Prime Minister may have a point. Young people in urban areas are increasingly unemployed and demoralized and this may also have added to his accomplishment. Maybe he deserves more aid simply because he has made us so poor that we are now chronically dependent on aid to maintain both our wealth and our poverty.

The Prime Minister may be talking on a totally different dimension however. In this scenario he believes that he deserves aid because there is some service, unknown to us, that he has rendered for those donating the aid. If this is the case, it will be impossible to find direct evidence for it and we need to look for indirect ones. One of Meles’ strongest international supporters has been the Prime Minister of the UK Mr. Tony Blair. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was a prominent member of his ‘Commission for Africa’ that was shunned in most African capitals as a newly packaged colonial program based on aid. The Economist mentioned his ‘exemplary’ contribution to this commission, shedding some light as to what he may have meant when he said that he ‘deserves’ aid.

Whatever the origin of Meles’ absurd comment, we know a few things about aid in Ethiopia that are worth mentioning here. The first is that aid is obtained in the name of poor Ethiopians but is for the most part controlled and absorbed by the EPRDF and aid donor interests. It is difficult to say if this is simply a cozy arrangement that has evolved into being organic or an explicit undeclared contract between the beneficiaries. The second is that neither beneficiary is willing to give up the money or each other at this time. This has been made amply evident by the silence, and at times quite support, that the donor community has given to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi despite his atrocious governance of the country.

We know that Ethiopia is in great need of aid. But the only aid that we need is one that has a possibility of passing on to the people. Not one that recreates Mobutu. Of all the possible ways in which Ethiopia could be aided, the present arrangement represents the worst format by encouraging crony behavior and unnecessary military spending to weaken the national defenses and strengthen ‘mercenary’ type forces. People have observed the various types of weapons that were turned against them in Addis implying misguided aid. Prime Minister Meles may believe that he deserves aid either as a viceroy serving a few masters who have a say over western tax-payer money, or because he has impoverished us. But we disagree. That is what the elections clearly showed.

The Economist Performs Absolutions?

In an article dated November 10, The Economist wonders about the true nature of Meles Zenawi – it asks if he is the “bon vivant who provided sterling service as a member of the Commission for Africa”…or “is he essentially a rebel leader, who will happily toy with democracy in order to stay in power?” But by November 10 the answer to this question was clear. By then Meles Zenawi’s goons had killed about 100 people on the streets of Addis Ababa (since June) and had arrested well over 20,000 people. The EU election observers had said the election was a failure. Parliamentary rules had changed. The rights of immunity for MPs had been lifted. The leaders of the opposition had been rounded up. Indiscriminate killings and rounding up of civilians was rife. The free media was curtailed. Meles Zenawi had declared opposition to him was a treasonous act. In short, Meles Zenawi through his actions had already answered The Economist’s question long before it was raised.

Despite these atrocities, The Economist chooses to bounce the reader between what it considers are Meles’s pros (which are based on the west’s view of what Meles has accomplished) and cons (which are based on the actions Meles undertook to quell the internal dissatisfaction with him). The reader is made to reserve judgment, but the last paragraph of this article goes even further. In its conclusion the article shocks Ethiopians and anyone who follows events in Ethiopia. It states:

"Many, perhaps most, Ethiopians and many foreign observers argue that, despite the government's recent bloody brutality, Mr. Zenawi is still the best man to keep Ethiopia on a path to development.”

Using this simple sentence in its conclusion The Economist tries to absolve Meles by telling the reader that despite all the brutality, most Ethiopians still hold him in high regard. This statement can only leave the unsuspecting reader wondering what miracles this man must have performed to have such grand sins absolved by the very people he is brutalizing. It convinces the reader that he too must accept (at least not oppose) Meles Zenawi in the interest of the greater good that Ethiopians and others expect from him. The reader is asked to hop on to the bandwagon of support; albeit one that only exists in the writer’s mind.

In the past many of us have wondered how it is that Meles is able to spin the west’s media. It is now clear that the western media actually goes out of its way to use sophisticated propaganda to protect its poster child and his sponsors against the growing movement by Ethiopians to expose Meles and his regime.

It is not only The Economist that engages in disseminating such information about Meles. The BBC, for instance, makes it a point to include a paragraph towards the conclusion of its news pieces that state Meles’s party has won majority seats in parilament without including the fact that these results were not accepted by the opposition, many Ethiopians or for that matter the EU observers - giving the impression that the Meles regime has majority support inside the country (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It highly publicizes the mass releases but not the mass arrests. On Nov 9, BBC posted that people in Addis are going back to work in defiance of opposition calls without mentioning the constant bullying and threats from Meles to force city residents to get back to work. The BBC has even failed to mention the sizable demonstration out side its building by Ethiopians in Britain protesting its biased reporting in October. Such reporting is by no means objective and neither can it be regarded as an honest error of reporting. It is clearly designed to portray Meles (and by extension his western patrons) in as good a light as possible despite his actions (and the west's inaction) .

What makes these forms of propaganda very dangerous is that they are not out right lies, but closely tailored to the truth and come from sources that many believe to be objective. Further, the questions in Ethiopia at this time are questions of basic human rights that can not be excused whether or not there is majority support inside the country or from the west. We believe that this is not lost on the media sources that continue to publish Meles’s actions as some type of a temporary aberration. There seems to be an engrained interest to see him through the current crisis at whatever cost.