In December 1997, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Addis Ababa and told Ethiopians:

Ethiopians knew that the distinguished Secretary, like all other western leaders, was cheated by our double-faced Prime Minister: He had successfully interfaced his oppressive regime, after the Cold War, with the military dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam of the Cold War years by first issuing a Constitution in 1994 to appease the USA, the EU and international financial institutions, while making sure that it would have no more value than the paper it was written on in Ethiopia where each and every article was violated with internal Government directives, as clearly seen in the appointment of the National Election Board ( art. 102), in the partisan services of all public mass media ( Art. 29), in the gross violation of human rights as sadly seen in Arba Gugu, Addis Ababa University, Guji-Gedio, Gambella, Asebot, Eastern Wellega, in the rude violations of the democratic rights of opposition political parties since May 2005 (Chapter 3 of the Constitution), etc…

The Secretary also talked about US assistance “ … to help democracy put down deep roots. Existing programs… for local officials and judicial system reform. … $8 million toward primary education.”. Clearly, the goodwill of the US government deserves to be appreciated by all Ethiopians, but it was totally misguided since her vision of “… to help democracy put down deep roots …” could not be achieved by training local officials, or assisting in reforming the judicial system or by even generous funding for primary education, as clearly seen during the preceding 40 years of US generous assistance to Ethiopia.

The US appeared to have forgotten that thousands of young Ethiopians had been given post-graduate training in distinguished American universities from practically all sections of the civil service and armed forces through the US’s Point Four Program since the ’50s, and practically all those trained since were thrown out by the Military Government in the early ’70s and the rest by the current Government in the early ’90s. Hence, all that training effort by the USA went down the drain because of the two dictatorships since 1974.

Today, we have another cunning dictatorship, but one greatly adored by the West for managing a successful dictatorship which continues to overtly and covertly butcher in Gambellla, Addis Ababa, Wellega, Northern Ethiopia and Southern Ethiopia, and, since May 2005, all over Ethiopia to retain its power monopoly against the expressed will of the people in the national and regional elections of May 15, 2005.

Democracy cannot take deep root when dictatorship continues to be nourished with generous western support with funds to buy police guns to continue killing unarmed citizens on our streets, makes famine a national culture by adopting worthless economic policies on land tenure, investment, taxation, telecommunications, banking, etc…, and continues to avoid transparency and accountability at all levels of Government since it knows that it can remain in power so long as it can cheat the West while continuing to use guns to silence the peaceful opposition.

The only way to build democracy is to make sure that the power of Government emanates from the free will of the people as expressed in their votes in free and fair elections. Meles Zenawi’s Government has refused to accept the decisions of the people on May 15, 2005; this is, therefore, the time when the USA and the EU can effectively come in and assist Ethiopians in restoring their stolen votes on May 15, 2005 in all rural Ethiopia and that will be the only meaningful, enduring and timely assistance “… to help democracy put down deep roots.”, ensure peace and stability in the Horn of Africa and mobilize all Ethiopia against international terrorism.

When the State itself is a terrorist, as in Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia, the cause of peace and stability in the Horn of Africa is in grave danger since the only way to counter an armed terrorist is, unfortunately, with the gun when all democratic procedures fail, as they seem to be doing in post-election Ethiopia.

The National Election Board (NEB) is partisan; the courts are headed by the Chairman of NEB, who is also President of the Federal Supreme Court and Chairman of the Constitutional Council – all done intentionally by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi – so that whichever way the opposition turns to submit a legal complaint, it finds the partisan Chairman of NEB and his associates in charge, thereby creating a totally hopeless condition for justice and free and fair elections.

The Meles-adored theory that democracy is a process that takes time to put down roots is absurd and apologetic: South Africans were murdering each other on all the street corners in South Africa in 1993, but they had a national democratic election in April 1994, and it was acclaimed as free and fair by at least 95% of all black and white South Africans in May 1994. Ethiopians can do the same with much less blood, and they have demonstrated respect for democratic ideals and practices in the mammoth 3-million strong demonstration of support for CUD on May 8, 2005, and again on May 15 when they persevered by queuing up to 5.00 a.m. on May 16, 2005 to cast their votes.

However, whereas the votes in Addis Ababa and in major towns were counted on time in the presence of international observers and the free press on May 15 and May 16, 2005, voting was rigged in several rural constituencies and the vote counting was largely frozen on May 15, 2005 when, in spite of the considerable fraud by EPRDF’s agents, the ruling party discovered that it was again losing badly in rural Ethiopia; opposition party agents were thrown out; ballot boxes were either stolen or simply carried away and brought back next day with a new set of ballots; several ballots that favored the opposition were found in toilet rooms and in nearby bushes; many polling station results that were made officially public on May 15, 2005 were reversed a few days latter by issuing another set of polling station voting results that portrayed EPRDF as the winner.

In short, EPRDF-engineered fraud and deception went wild in rural Ethiopia after May 16, 2005 to steal the votes of our poor farmers by taking advantage of the absence of independent international observers and the free press. In Addis Ababa, the ruling party was routed, and it lost all 23 seats to CUD, and EPRDF has been taking unbelievably childish steps to spoil the working environment in the House of Peoples Representatives (HPR) and in Addis Ababa after CUD’s scheduled take-over in October 2005.

The last set of regulations passed by members of the EPRDF-dominated HPR before ending their last session last month was to pass regulations for in-coming members of HPR in October 2005 as follows:

• All draft law proposals related to finances will come only from the Ruling Party
• All draft law proposals of the Ruling Party will have priority over any other opposition party proposals
• All draft law proposals shall come through the House Speaker
• None of the opposition parties have a right to talk to the House Leader of the Ruling Party to schedule discussions of new draft proposals. All scheduling of the discussion of draft laws will be determined by the House Speaker and the House Leader of the Ruling Party.
• Opposition parties will be classified as the Principal Opposition Party, the Second Opposition Party, etc…[ Why ? ]
• Discussions will not be allowed on any draft laws; however, the opposition can simply give an opinion. [The implication is that the opposition will not be allowed to table any draft law for discussion ]
• The Minutes of HPR shall be approved by the House Speaker.

Indeed, even without any knowledge of the results of the elections, EPRDF appears to assume that it will continue to be the Ruling Party, and it ahs designed HPR to continue to be an EPRDF monopoly. In addition, there is absolutely no logic for a retiring HPR to prepare rules of procedure for an incoming HPR which is likely to be more representative of the people of Ethiopia, though against the wishes of Meles Zenawi’s EPRDF.

If stolen votes are not condoned, there is no basis for assuming that EPRDF will be the Ruling Party during the next 5 years. If EPRDF has its way with the stolen votes of rural Ethiopia, HPR will not be a democratic institution that will discuss and legislate on all national issues, but a forum for EPRDF dictatorship, and that invites disaster of great proportion since the majority of Ethiopian people will then have no voice in HPR.

The other childish and EPRDF-engineered development is in Addis Ababa where the Transitional Government, headed by a mayor who is member of the Executive Committees of TPLF and EPRDF, has over-turned taxation Proclamation No. 286/2002 with simple directives. EPRDF is here again at its best, violating the law since the Transitional Government has been in power for the last three years when the law provided only for a year of transition during which the Transitional Administration will not formulate any new policies or programs other than implementing those in the pipeline; that has not happened since EPRDF’s Transitional Mayor Arkebe has drafted new laws, violated the Constitution, raised taxes and impoverished several businesses, and uprooted several families from their homes to sell their land to rich partners.

After the disastrous loss of Addis Ababa to CUD, EPRDF appears to have failed to realize that it has no more right to levy new taxes, set new policies or launch new programs. Determined as ever to be destructive and anti-democratic, it began to forgive tax arrears for small businesses and taxi-drivers a few days before the elections of May 15, 2005, but that attempt to woe the electorate failed badly, and EPRDF lost Addis Ababa on May 15, 2005. However, the sub-regional Councils’ elections are coming soon so that EPRDF still wants to woe the electorate in Addis Ababa by making still more foolish tax concessions, using illegal directives from the Mayor’s office:

• Taxes for small businesses were reduced by as much as 50% of previous year’s taxes
• Several small business like groceries, grain traders, barbers, laundries, jewelry shops, most of which came up after EPRDF took over in Addis Ababa, were totally exempted from taxes
• Taxes for income from renting houses and buildings were mostly reduced to less that 5% of last year’s taxes by allowing 90% of the income from rents to be retained as maintenance cost when even the 20% provided for in Article 16 of Proclamation No. 286/2002 was denied recognition last fiscal year.
• Taxes on livestock were suspended until further notice
• Taxes on personal income were unchanged so that whereas a person obtaining rent income of 8000 Birr per month pays 72.00 Birr per month, an employee of such a landowner that receives 800 Birr per month also pays 72.00 Birr per month. Likewise, there is no tax reduction for all big businesses that keep books of accounts.

Indeed, the Mayor did not have any legal authority to make such muddled up reductions after the elections since his administration is effectively a caretaker government. The only intention of this last minute illegal overture is to get a more favorable support in the upcoming local elections, to create a rift between businesses in Addis Ababa and CUD, and to ensure that the City’s Treasury is empty when CUD takes over the City Government next October.

The Transitional Government of Addis Ababa has not stopped at self-serving tax forgiveness and tax reductions; it has moved essential tax revenue sources from Addis Ababa’s Administration to the Federal Government; taxes collected for the City’s transport and communications services, and taxes for documentation and related services and quarantine services have been moved to the Federal Government, perhaps partly to deny CUD some essential revenues and partly, and most likely, to hide documents which may expose possible corrupt EPRDF practices over the last 14 years.

Still another step taken by the Prime Minister after the national and regional elections on May 15, 2005 is to transfer Addis Ababa Police to Federal Police to bring it under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister; none of the regional police forces, except Addis Ababa since last month, is under the Prime Minister. With this bizarre action, Addis Ababa, which is the seat of the OAU and of the Economic Commission of Africa, and the host for some 120 diplomatic missions from around the globe, has no police force of its own; it has to request such services from the Federal Government unless, of course, CUD is the Ruling Party, which it deserves to be since it has the people’s votes both in rural and urban Ethiopia.

The new regulations of HPR, the tax forgiveness just before May 15, 2005, the senseless tax reductions, the transfer of revenue sources to the Federal Government and the transfer of Addis Ababa Police to the Federal Police soon after May 15, 2005 are all indicators of a diabolical regime which has no respect for democratic practice or rule of law.

It is not that EPRDF does not know that it is only a care-taker government after the elections, but it is used to disregarding the law at its convenience and to ensure its return to power using even such disgraceful methods as vote rigging, ballot box stealing, vote counts doctoring, threatening, beating and killing witnesses of the opposition who came forward to testify this month all over rural Ethiopia in the Tripartite Investigative Panels chaired by partisan NEB and quietly witnessed by international observers.

Rural Ethiopia is the first to be called to arms whenever there is external invasion, and that has been the case in the Ethio-Eritrean war in 1998 when some 100,000 of our youth have perished in a senseless war between brothers on either side of the Mereb River; rural Ethiopia is the first to be victimized by any unruly government, the first to suffer in a devastating famine, the first to be denied a voice in the election of its leaders, and the first to be subjected to inhuman treatment in spite of the beautiful constitutional provisions to protect political rights and civil liberties in Chapter 3 of the Constitution.

Today, rural Ethiopia has had enough of brutal regimes, and it has had enough of EPRDF’s 14 years of impoverishing and dehumanizing rule. Our farmers know their rights and obligations as citizens, and they are demanding their rights. They will not be satisfied when their votes are stolen, and when repeated recourse to the rule of law fails, then the imminent danger for peace and stability begins. NEB is totally partisan; the courts are not independent since they are also headed by the Chairman of NEB and staffed by his EPRDF associates.

The only solution to the current election dilemma in Ethiopia is for the USA, the EU, international financial institutions and the UN to come together and insist that EPRDF observes the laws of the Land and agree to free and fair elections in all disputed election constituencies under strict international supervision. Whatever is done to carry this out is much more valuable to Ethiopia than billions of Dollars of yearly loans or grants from the international community. Respect for democratic rights is invaluable and it is the first critical step towards peace, stability and economic prosperity in the Horn of Africa!

Ethiopians in the Diaspora should further intensify their appeals for the support of all democratic Governments all over the globe against the current evil regime! Our votes in rural Ethiopia have to count!