Posts filed under ‘Democracy’
Violence in Libya and Bahrain has claimed scores of lives and left many more injured as the two Arab countries were united by popular protests that continue to shake the status quo and sound alarm bells across the region and the world.
A week after Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, was forced to stand down, dozens of Libyans were reported killed by Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces. Meanwhile, Bahraini troops shot dead at least one protester and wounded 50 others after mourners buried four people who were killed on Thursday in the worst mass unrest the western-backed Gulf state has ever seen.
“We don’t care if they kill 5,000 of us,” a protester screamed inside Salmaniya hospital, which has become a staging point for Bahrain’s raging youth. “The regime must fall and we will make sure it does.”
Last night footage was posted on YouTube apparently showing Bahraini security forces shooting protesters.
Western nations have been struggling to adjust their policies in response to the security crackdowns in Arab countries.
But Britain announced that it was revoking 44 licences for the export of arms to Bahrain amid concern over the violent suppression of protests in the Gulf state. The Foreign Office also said that eight arms export licences to Libya had been withdrawn, while a review of arms exports to the wider region continues.
Bahrain’s crown prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa went on television to promise a national dialogue once calm has returned. But the country’s most senior Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, condemned attacks on protesters as a “massacre” and said the government had shut the door to such dialogue.
While the unrest in Bahrain was broadcast instantly around the world, the unprecedented bloodshed in the remote towns of eastern Libya was far harder for global media to cover.
Amid an official news blackout in Libya, there were opposition claims of 60 dead as diplomats reported the use of heavy weapons in Benghazi, the country’s second city, and “a rapidly deteriorating situation” in the latest – and the most repressive – Arab country to be hit by serious unrest.
Libyans said a “massacre” had been perpetrated in Benghazi, al-Bayda and elsewhere in the region. Crowds in the port city of Tobruk were shown destroying a statue of Gaddafi’s Green Book and chanting, “We want the regime to fall,” echoing the slogan of the uprising in Egypt.
Umm Muhammad, a political activist in Benghazi, told the Guardian that 38 people had died in the city. “They [security forces] were using live fire here, not just teargas. This is a bloody massacre – in Benghazi, in al-Bayda, all over Libya. They are releasing prisoners from the jails to attack the demonstrators.” Benghazi’s al-Jala hospital was appealing for emergency blood supplies to help treat the injured.
News and rumours spread rapidly via social media websites including Twitter and Facebook, but information remained fragmentary and difficult to confirm.
In Yemen at least five people were reported killed when security forces and anti-government protesters clashed for a seventh consecutive day in the capital, Sana’a, Aden and other cities, with crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule.
Barack Obama said he was “deeply concerned” about the reports of violence from Bahrain, a close ally and the base of the US fifth fleet, as well as those from Libya and Yemen, and he urged their rulers to show restraint with protesters.
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, also condemned the killings of protesters in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. “The Middle East and North Africa region is boiling with anger,” he said. “At the root of this anger is decades of neglect of people’s aspirations to realise not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights.”
In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the influential Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi said the Arab world had changed and said Egypt’s new military leaders should listen to their people “to liberate us from the government that Mubarak formed”.
It has also emerged that the Ministry of Defence has helped train more than 100 Bahraini army officers in the past five years at Sandhurst and other top UK colleges.
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February 25, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Addis Ababa – Ethiopia released the country’s most prominent opposition leader from jail on Wednesday, four months after the government’s landslide win in elections criticised by Western powers.
Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge, is the leader of Ethiopia’s biggest opposition party, the Unity for Democracy and Justice.
She left a prison in the capital Addis Ababa in a car with her daughter and mother, a Reuters witness said. Supporters said she was going to her home.
Critics of the government say she was jailed because she was the main threat to the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) at the May 23 election, which gave Prime Minister Meles Zenawi another five-year mandate.
The government has denied that accusation.
Some analysts said the release could be a drive to repair some of the damage to the country’s democratic credentials following the landslide election victory – and given that Meles has since consolidated power he can afford to be magnanimous.
“This may be part of a broader campaign to reorients the political system so that it at least appears to be more democratic,” said David Shinn, a former US envoy to Ethiopia.
“In fact, it might even become more democratic. Many of the original EPRDF leaders have moved or are moving to the sidelines. Meles has stated that he will not run for prime minister in 2015 and I believe he will not,” he told Reuters.
Meles, in power since 1991, was sworn in as prime minister again on Monday after the May vote gave his EPRDF and allies 545 seats in the 547-seat parliament.
Ethiopia is a key Western ally in the Horn of Africa, where it is seen as a bulwark against the rise of militant Islamism. The country is also keen to attract foreign investment in large scale farming and oil and gas exploration. – Reuters
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October 6, 2010 at 4:58 PM
By Gregory R. Copley
Major new energy issues are about to transform still further the strategic balance of the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, with foreseeable consequences for the global energy market over the coming decade. Soon-to-be-evident new wealth in the Red Sea/Horn of Africa region will transform the intensity of conflict there, which in turn will affect not only the region, but the world’s most important trading route: the Red Sea/Suez sea line of communication (SLOC). Read more: http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Africa/Energy-and-Security-Issues-in-the-Red-Sea-Transforming-as-the-Age-of-Gas-Begins-in-Earnest.html
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September 2, 2010 at 2:00 AM
By LAHAV HARKOV
An Egged bus driver is being sued for NIS 200,000 after allegedly slandering, insulting, and verbally and physically assaulting an Ethiopian passenger, according to a statement released by Tebeka, an advocacy organization for Ethiopian Israelis.
The Ethiopian college student waited at a bus stop in Rishon Leziyyon, and tried to board the bus, but the driver closed the door in her face, refusing to let her on. She managed to get on the bus anyway, and the driver yelled at her, saying “I don’t let black Ethiopians on my bus,” and “these blacks – who let you into Israel?”
The driver added: “All of these kushim [a derogatory term for Africans] should be sent back to Ethiopia. You are a stupid nation, and you damage our land.”
The passenger asked the driver not to speak to her, and in response, the driver grabbed her skirt, not allowing her to proceed onto the bus.
At a hearing conducted by Egged, the driver did not express regret and did not apologize. He said he stands by his opinios about Ethiopians. Egged fined the driver with one and a half months’ salary. The Ministry of Transportation also pressed charges against the driver and Egged.
Tomer Reif and Hila Ben Harosh, the lawyers representing the student, are part of a Project “My Brother’s Keeper,” in which lawyers represent Ethiopians that turn to Tebeka pro bono.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
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July 14, 2010 at 8:00 PM
By James Butty
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
An Ethiopian government minister said a rebel group that has been fighting for a separate state in the country’s Ogaden region has agreed to lay down its arms.
Communications Minister Bereket Simon says the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has decided to work within the constitutional framework.
“A certain faction from the ONLF has decided to operate within the constitutional framework. They want to continue as a legally functioning party and contend for power. That will be guaranteed and respected,” he said.
But a spokesman for the ONLF was quoted in published reports as saying the claim of a peace deal was all Ethiopian government propaganda.
Simon said the ONLF has started to realize the futile nature of continuing with their armed struggle.
He said the armed groups have also decided to get on the bandwagon of the government’s development agenda that he said has been taking place in the Ogaden region.
“What is transpiring currently is that most of the members of these groups have started to see the futile nature of continuing in a violent way. They have seen massive development work is taking place in their region,” he said.
Simon said some of the development work taking place in the Ogaden includes new universities, roads, irrigation, and airports.
He said Ethiopians want to put the past behind them, and as such, the members of any armed groups that lay down their arms will not be prosecuted.
Source: AOL
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June 26, 2010 at 11:13 PM
By Zainab Salbi, The Huffington Post
Today I would like to tell you the story of Birtukan Mideksa, an Ethiopian prisoner of conscience who is facing life imprisonment for speaking out against an oppressive government. Birtukan is an opposition leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (formerly Coalition for Unity and Democracy) party and is advocating for democracy and rule of law in Ethiopia. After years of civil unrest and war with Eritrea, Ethiopia is still struggling to overcome oppression and establish political freedom. The parliamentary elections in 2005 spurred violent protests, which led to the arbitrary arrest and detainment of hundreds of opposition leaders, journalists, human rights advocates and civilians. Birtukan was one of those arrested in 2005, and she received a life imprisonment sentence. Then, in 2007, Birtukan received a pardon and was released from prison, only to be put back into prison once more in 2008 for discussing the details of her prior arrest. Her original sentence of life imprisonment has since been reinstated.
Much of Birtukan’s time in prison has been spent in solitary confinement. The only people allowed to visit Birtukan are her mother and her four-year-old daughter. Before her arrest, Birtukan was the main provider for her family, who is now suffering not only emotionally but also financially from Birtukan’s imprisonment. She is not allowed to meet with any legal representation and the government refuses to listen to her needs. There are even reports that she is being denied medical treatment, despite numerous requests for a physician. The Red Cross and other humanitarian officials are being denied access to the prison, and the exact treatment of Birtukan is unknown.
When addressing the U.S. Congress in 2007, Birtukan stated that “only through dialogue and negotiation will stability and peace be guaranteed” in Ethiopia. In the context of the rampant human rights violations and other oppressive government actions, advocates for peace and freedom are desperately needed in Ethiopia. And yet, women like Birtukan are still being denied the opportunity to negotiate this peace.
Birtukan’s story represents the struggle women across the world are facing to have a political voice and to stand up for human rights. Take Jameela, a Palestinian woman from Gaza, who was imprisoned in Israel for 2 years when she was 18 years old for smuggling letters for the PLO. She was tortured. She was hanged from her hands for long periods, put in solitary confinement for about 6 months, and had drops of water dripping on her forehead for hours at a time. When she was finally released from prison, her entire community wanted to abandon her because they assumed she had been sexually abused in prison and thus had her honor taken away. Only her father and her future husband stood by her side. She is now living in a half-destroyed one-room house with her entire family.
Or take Mona, a young activist from Iraq, who was continually raped by a captain during the war so that he would not kill her brothers. This captain started a habit of visiting her daily at her family home. There, he would take her to a bedroom in her house, close the door behind him (her brothers, mother and sisters are still in the living room), and rape her. He would then leave her home. “Day after day, week after week, month after month he did that and not once did my brothers or mother said anything. As a matter of fact, when I would refuse to go with him, they would scold me and urge me to go to him so he wouldn’t get upset. In the beginning, this whole ordeal was to save my brothers from prison.” Mona is now activist dedicated to rescuing prostituted girls and women who, no different from her, ended up in a path not because of their desires but because they were saving loved ones as she saved her brothers.
According to the UN, 90% of modern war casualties are civilians, 75% of which are women and children. That reality only addresses the death tolls created by war. Statistics have yet to capture the price women pay for wars often just for living in it and trying to survive it. On top of political and military pressure, women are often faced with another layer of community and traditional demands. Then there are the women, like Birtukan, Jameela and Mona, who are trying to take a stand against these wars and who end up facing extreme oppression and human rights violations imposed by governments and military groups.
The bravery of these women despite all odds is inspirational. Women everywhere are paying a personal price for their political reality. It is these women, and the millions of women survivors of conflict who are striving every day to carry on in the midst of astronomical challenges, who are pushing us forward in the global women’s movement. It is these women who are standing up for peace and equality, finding their voices and speaking truth in the face of oppression and fear. These women deserve to have their voices heard.
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June 3, 2010 at 1:23 AM
An election in Ethiopia promises little change
From The Economist online
THERE are two colours I associate with Ethiopia. Grey for the dust, the bare hills, stony soil and donkeys. Grey for the Soviet-era buildings in the towns and the fumes of ancient Lada cars. Then there is gold, in the fields at harvest time, in the sunshine at that lung-busting altitude, and the heavy jewellery worn by women. Gold especially for the churches, the icons, the luminous curls in the crosses and staves, and in the golden plumage of archangels who many Ethiopians believe overlook the inner workings of their lives.
Religion is central to life in Ethiopia, as it is in the rest of Africa. But it is of a very different type. Neighbouring Kenya became Christian just over a century ago. Its Christianity still has a stripped-down missionary flavour. The Amhara and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, by contrast, were Christian long before St Augustine of Canterbury landed in England. The Band Aid anthem to raise money for Ethiopian famine victims in 1984 was in some ways ill-judged: of course they knew it was Christmastime.
Yet Ethiopia is also a country of revolutionary zeal. It is ruled by an inner circle of former Marxist guerrillas who are not evidently religious. That sets up a tension in the country. After this week’s election victory by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), I ask Ethiopians what they would like to ask their long-serving prime minister, Meles Zenawi. Most often they say they would like to quiz him about God. “I want to know if he is a believer,” says my driver in Addis Ababa. Teddy—his name changed to protect his identity—is critical of the government. They have done many good things. But they like to control us.” Even in heavy traffic Teddy takes his hands off the steering wheel and crosses himself when passing one of the many churches. He gently recounts his own story of last week’s elections. The organisers of the taxi fleet he drives for are card-carrying members of the EPRDF. “We are not talking about many people. Maybe 20 out of a couple of hundred cabs. But they decide on a lot of things, including the renewal of licences. They told the rest of us we had to attend government rallies in a procession during the election campaign. Most of us refused. After the election they will come for us.” What will he do then? Teddy shrugs. He is close to retirement, but has two small children. “A man cannot live on his knees.”
The fear among Ethiopians like Teddy is similar to that of citizens in the Soviet bloc in the 1970s. Those who prove themselves to the party will be awarded promotions and sinecures, however modest. Those who refuse to join in risk losing the privileges they have. And for the few who openly challenge the way in which the EPRDF muddles its own interest with the national interest there is the prospect of censorship, harassment and prison.
Ethiopia is an authoritarian state, not a totalitarian one. The choice is difficult, but it remains a choice. The situation is in some ways harder than in the Soviet Union though. There is no barbed wire holding the Ethiopians in, rather an overwhelming indifference in the rest of the world. Nor is there much of an alternative to the EPRDF. Whatever criticism is made of Mr Zenawi, he is more cogent and measured than the opposition. Its heroes include Birtukan Mideksa, a single mother who is serving a life sentence in solitary confinement for standing up to the government. But her heroics are undercut by the failure of the opposition to unite around a sensible manifesto for the future of Ethiopia.
Over the next five years critics of the EPRDF can expect to be further marginalised. Western donors are largely happy with this state of affairs. They hope for something like an African version of Yugoslavia under Tito. Stability is indeed a precious prize, if your goal is to eradicate extreme poverty. The danger though is that progress at the bottom will mean suffocation of a an independent-minded middle class. Lackeys seldom make the creative leaps a country like Ethiopia needs as its population swells to perhaps as much 30m in the coming decades (up from 40m in the days of Band Aid). At present a tenth of the country would perish without foreign food aid. The EPRDF is unwilling to give up control of farmland, telecoms, and the internet. Ethiopia’s banks, stocks, and insurance markets are far behind other big African countries. None of that bodes well. Ethiopians have historically always attacked the centre from the periphery. If the country cannot run ahead of its poverty, the risk of a Yugoslav-style denouement grows. Religion plays into the fatalism. Many Ethiopians believe that the opposition is incidental. Only God can change their government.
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June 3, 2010 at 1:14 AM
By Will Ross BBC News
Ruling party supporters have been angered by foreign criticism of the polls
What do a sports car and the Ethiopian opposition have in common? They both have two seats.
This joke is doing the rounds in Ethiopia after an almost embarrassing landslide victory for the governing EPRDF party and its allies left the opposition with just a lonely brace of seats in the 547 member parliament.
There is no word for “landslide” in the local Amharic language, but they need one now.
The European Union said the polls were marked by restrictions on political freedom and the unfair use of state resources, and there is international concern over increasing repression in Ethiopia.
The United States has every right to use its tax payers’ money as it sees fit
Meles Zenawi Ethiopian prime minister
But Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will not be losing any sleep.
A thorough trouncing is much better for the nerves than a nail-biter and it is unlikely that Ethiopia’s relationship with donor countries will change significantly even if a few fingers are briefly wagged.
The money will keep flowing.
“The United States has every right to use its tax payers’ money as it sees fit,” Mr Meles told reporters after his victory.
“If they feel that the outcome of the elections are such that they cannot continue our partnership, that’s fine.
“We shall be very grateful for the assistance they have given us so far and move on. Clearly we are not a protectorate,” he concluded.
Such comments are easier for Mr Meles to make now that he has a new friend in China – it will not utter a squeak over the elections.
Islamist buffer
China is helping with many infrastructure projects in Ethiopia – including an offer of a $500m (£344m) loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for the construction of the controversial Gibe Three hydroelectric dam.
Ethiopia receives aid worth around $2bn a year, mostly from the US and the UK.
The feeling amongst many donor countries is that the country desperately needs help in fighting poverty, and the money is being spent relatively wisely by Mr Meles’s government.
They see real progress: For example, a recent report by American researchers pointed to success in reducing child mortality.
China is behind many infrastructure projects in Ethiopia
The report said that in 1990, 202 Ethiopian children per 1,000 died before the age of five. In 2010, the rate had halved to 101 deaths per 1,000.
Of course, Ethiopia still has a long way to go in comparison to somewhere like Singapore, where there are just two deaths per 1,000 children under the age of five.
Ethiopia is also a donor darling because it is seen as an invaluable buffer against the growing Islamic extremism in Somalia.
When it comes to America’s foreign policy, any concerns over shrinking democratic space or eye brow leaping election results are totally trumped by any help in “the war on terror”.
Mr Meles could be receiving a few phone calls from other African leaders searching for election tips.
The Ethiopian capital is famous for staging the hugely popular 10km race, the Great Addis Run, but now all talk is of ‘the Great Addis Turn Around’
Paul Kagame of Rwanda may not need the advice but his neighbour in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, could do with a few hints on how to change the face of politics in the capital, Kampala, ahead of 2011 elections.
The Ethiopian capital is famous for staging the hugely popular 10km race, the Great Addis Run, but now all talk is of “the Great Addis Turn Around”.
Greatest enemies
In 2005, the opposition won all 23 parliamentary seats in Addis. In 2010 it kept just one. How?
The efficient well-oiled governing party machinery was a key factor – I lost count as to how many people told me that “the EPRDF only woke up in 2005″.
It was helped by the fact that the opposition was divided and fairly disorganised.
But many Ethiopia watchers suggest you have to look at what happened to the opposition over five years to get the whole picture.
If you try sending an e-mail from Ethiopia to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it miraculously bounces back
Almost 200 opposition supporters were shot dead when they demonstrated against what they saw as election theft in 2005; thousands were arrested, including opposition leaders who were sent to jail for close to years.
Birtukan Mideksa remains behind bars after being accused of breaking the terms of her pardon.
Press freedom has also been under attack. Journalists have fled the country since 2005 and if you try sending an e-mail from Ethiopia to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it miraculously bounces back.
Filming on the streets of Addis Ababa, it was hard to find people prepared to say on camera that they supported the opposition – many suggested that would be asking for trouble.
Addis Ababa has undergone great change in the last five years
The governing party dismisses all these allegations but analysts point out that the Ethiopian government is only willing to allow a certain degree of democracy and that will always be the root of friction with the donors – China excluded.
US-based Human Rights Watch said the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters and said the most salient feature of the election was the months of repression preceding it.
One publication recently suggested that the Ethiopian government’s greatest enemies were Eritrea and the weather. Human Rights Watch could also be added to the list.
It clearly angered the government as it shone a light on allegations of repression that no election observer team would be able to find – partly because they were not allowed in the country early enough.
But the African leaders hoping for tips from Mr Meles should also realise that hard work is also useful ahead of an election – it wins votes.
The scale of the housing estates being built on the edge of Addis Ababa is nothing short of staggering.
Time will tell how good the quality of the construction is, but there are also impressive eight-lane roads leading to these suburbs.
The development is by no means restricted to the capital: access to healthcare has improved in the rural areas and in Lalibela, 700km (about 435 miles) away from Addis Ababa, new classrooms are springing up and roads built.
Kenyans, Ugandans and others may be freer than Ethiopians but their list of “What my government has achieved” would be miserably short in comparison.
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June 1, 2010 at 8:21 PM
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, one of America’s key allies in Africa, is gloating over his “landslide victory” in the country’s national elections earlier this month. The ruling party has claimed to have swept all but two of the 546 declared seats, which is more than enough to make the parliament a complete rubber stamp for Mr. Zenawi.
On Tuesday, a few hours before international observers released their preliminary report on the credibility of the polls, Mr. Zenawi gathered tens of thousands of his supporters for a victory rally at Meskel Square in Addis Ababa, and called on the opposition and the international community to fully accept the supposed verdict of the people of Ethiopia.
The rally was also well-choreographed to condemn “foreign elements,” especially Human Rights Watch, which had already dismissed the elections as fraudulent. “Behind an orderly façade, the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters,” said Rona Peligal, Human Rights Watch’s acting Africa director. “Whatever the results, the most salient feature of this election was the months of repression preceding it.”
Despite growing international uproar, Mr. Zenawi had a different take on the outcome of the “historic” elections. “As the whole world knows,” he said, “the fourth national elections have taken place in a peaceful, democratic and credible manner. These elections have been conducted successfully according to plan,” he declared.
His own hype notwithstanding, Mr. Zenawi has never managed to convince independent observers that elections have been free and fair since he came to power in 1991 after waging a bloody, 17-year-long guerrilla war to oust his predecessor dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam.
It was no surprise that the European Union and U.S. came out quickly, albeit quietly, to contradict Mr. Zenawi’s self-congratulatory victory speech. While both noted that the elections were largely peaceful and free of violence, they added they were marred by a narrowing political space and did not meet “international standards.” This is diplomatic understatement at its most impressive.
If even a modicum of “democratic legitimacy” can be had by stage-managing national elections every five years, then Mr. Zenawi and his brutal iron fist will undoubtedly rule Ethiopia for many more years to come. After all, Ethiopian’s multi-party system has been carefully crafted to allow ethnically fractured and impotent opposition parties to confront the ruling party’s juggernaut, while guarding the incumbent’s security, logistic, financial, political and organizational advantage. In Ethiopia under Meles, as in the Mengistu era, the state and the ruling party are one and the same.
These fourth national elections were not any different from the previous three. As usual, the result was a foregone conclusion well before the game kicked off. The ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, is a coalition of ethnic parties created by Mr. Zenawi’s minority Tigray people’s Liberation Front in 1989. The ruling umbrella group has managed to spread its tentacles across the country within the last two decades, and boasts a membership of well over five million—one in six of the 29 million people reported to have cast their votes. Every ruling party member was ordered to bring at least five other voters to the polls.
The only time the ruling party was on the verge of losing power was during the third national elections. In 2005, the atmosphere was freer and opposition parties were allowed to hold unfettered political rallies and campaigns. The now defunct Coalition for Unity and Democracy party did extremely well. But the ruling party claimed victory before the count was completed.
When opposition supporters demanded respect for their votes and held protest rallies to vent their anger, Mr. Zenawi ordered loyalist security forces to crack down on dissent. Security forces opened fire in Addis Ababa, killing 193 civilians and wounding nearly 800 others. Opposition leaders, journalists, and civil society leaders were arrested and charged with treason and genocide. Over 40,000 opposition party supporters were rounded up and detained in military camps.
This year, it was clear Mr. Zenawi had learned from his 2005 mistakes, and took a series of preemptive measures to skew the election result. He closed down a number of critical newspapers, jammed Voice of America, blocked critical websites, banned all forms opposition rallies, crippled civil society organizations, and deliberately fomented divisions in the opposition camp. The charismatic Birtukan Mideksa, whom many refer to as the Ethiopia’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and other dissidents perceived as enemies of the state, were locked up.
In 2002, British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby—who famously exposed the 1973 Ethiopian famine—travelled there to see for himself the progress the country had been making. His ensuing article, “Ethiopia Proves There Can Be Life after Death,” appeared on July 28, 2002 in the Observer, and quotes Mr. Zenawi as saying: “Africa’s downfall has always been the cult of the personality. And their names always seem to begin with M. We’ve had Mobutu and Mengistu and I’m not going to add Meles to the list.”
Today, Mr. Zenawi has comfortably joined the list he derided and despised. By the end of his new term, he will have ruled the poor nation that survives on food aid for a quarter of a century. For now, he has bought relative silence from the West by continuing to serve as a key ally in the war on terror. But in Ethiopia, totalitarian rule remains a serious act of terrorism that goes unchallenged. Ethiopia’s elections have turned out to be more embarrassing for its Western sponsors than their daredevil African ally, which shows no remorse over the death of democracy.
Mr. Gellaw is a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and its Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Earlier this year, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Source: The wall street Journal
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June 1, 2010 at 3:18 AM
By Wang Guangun
ADDIS ABABA, May 25 (Xinhua) — The Ethiopian ruling party has gained 499 seats in the 547-member parliament, media reported on Tuesday.
The report quoted the Ethiopian National Electoral Board as saying the outcome emerged when 536 results were announced.
Earlier on Tuesday, the National Electoral Board has announced that the ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is leading the fourth national elections by winning 477 of the 547 federal parliamentary seats.
Public Relations Head with the Board, Mohammed Abdurahman, said in a statement on Tuesday that the EPRDF won 38 seats in Tigray, 137 in Amhara, 160 in Oromia and eight seats in Afar states, according to the provisional election results.
Hundreds of thousands of members and supporters of the EPRDF on Tuesday celebrated party’s victory after announcement of provisional election results by the National Electoral Board.
Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s current Prime Minister and Chairperson of EPRDF, accompanied by senior government officials, joined the huge crowd at Maskal Square, the grand one in Addis Ababa, capital of the nation.
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May 25, 2010 at 6:35 PM
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