Ethiopia at a crossroads: The tug-of-war between the forces of democracy and tyranny

“Without perpetual rediscovery and reinterpretation of history, without free access to that reservoir, the life of a single generation would be but a trickle of water in a desert… that history has an anticipatory side. It is the domain of the possible, the starting point of the ideal… the creation and selection of new potentialities, the projection of ideal goals, is, with reference to the future, the counterpart of an intelligent commerce with the past.” – Noted American Thinker Lewis Mumford, 1944 (emphasis added)

“The governing Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has the responsibility to reach out to the opposition parties to ensure their full involvement in governance.” – US State Department Statement, September 16, 2005.

“Tekawami party tebale, gebre senay dirgit tebale, yegil gazeta tebale zoro, zoro ye Isapa cadrewotch natchew. Ye Isapa keftegna shumament yeneberu sewotch natchew be sostum bota yalut.”

“…The opposition parties, NGOs, the free press are the cadres of the (Derg’s) Ethiopian Workers Party (EWP), those who were former high officials of the Derg regime are all in the three bodies viz., the opposition parties, NGOs and the free press…” Meles Zenawi, Interview in Abiyotaw Democracy, September, 2005

1. Learning and moving on beyond the past

Lewis Mumford has a penetrating insight on how to read history and learn intelligently from the past. His insight is very relevant to the current use, misuse and abuse of Ethiopia’s difficult past for sectarian ends. We Ethiopians must learn to engage intelligently with our past. We must go beyond the past, and not remain detained or confined by its limitations. A rediscovery of the past means nothing else other than a commitment to project a new ideal and new future. A reinterpretation of the past is not done to ignore, condemn, cynically use or re-use or forget this past, but above all, to learn from it, to escape from being caught in the reality and memory of repeating the same mistakes of those who imposed the autocratic temper on our nation, people and country for a long time most probably without the willing support of the people of the time. We cannot afford to be condescending of those who bequeathed to us Ethiopia at least free from direct colonial enslavement, though the country has been hugely damaged by the pressures of the colonial experience, and even more brutally by the grotesque internal deficiency of governance and abuse of massive human rights from which it has not fully escaped to date, no matter how sad this is to admit at this time when the world is moving to the 21st century.

The past must not be used cynically to destroy hope or the current collective achievement of democracy so magnificently attained by the collective imagination of the Ethiopian people expressed in their splendid action of going to vote and express their voice to take their own-life chances and destiny in their own hands. Any one who wishes Ethiopia well can only welcome this extraordinary historical attempt to break from the country’s long autocratic past. Equally important, anyone who values freedom and democracy can only bow in respect to the majestic doing of this self-action for democracy by the people of Ethiopia.

We say the past is not the current major problem. The current major problem has to do with the self-serving interpretation of the past by those who are saddled in power now. They have chosen to bring up frequently the past that they condemn so vehemently in order to create political opportunities for their own sectarian advantages. That is the real problem now coming from the ruling elite that wishes to replay a past that can only be re-enacted, if and only if the current rulers wish to close all avenues for dialogue as they keep threatening to do, and prepare the atmosphere for large-scale intimidation and harassment, that they seem would follow if the people, opposition and internal and external friends of Ethiopian democracy do not surrender to their demands and whims. They rule out any retreat from their demand for others to surrender so that they can continue to retain their threatened power. They do not want to dialogue or reach out to others, they want to close in and dig their heels, and arrogantly defy the will of anyone who has given them advice to oblige for the larger good of the country. We appreciate the State Department’s suggestion for the regime to reach out to include the opposition in governance. There is no doubt that the strong men of the regime will defy this advice as they did the EU-EOM report by accusing the honourable European MP Ms. Anna Gomez of ‘ colonial’ inclinations. We in the NES have been accused also of supporting ‘colonial viceroys’. No one can predict what these persons may come up with – being haunted by their own intrigues, conspiratorial and secretive mind-sets.

It is extremely disingenuous for the regime figures and their acolytes to try to dig the past of some of the opposition leaders in order to discredit the project of reviving the idea of Ethiopia that is shared now by all Ethiopians from Tigray to Oromia, except perhaps for a very few demented members of the elites like the current rulers. To their credit, the Oromo Liberation Front has come out clearly now that they would pursue authentic self-determination within the framework of a united Ethiopia.

We say that the blackmailing of opposition figures by tarnishing their democratic credentials with past dictatorial association is an attempt to prepare a violent response to the democratic challenge they posed to the incumbent party and its arrogant rulers. It is indeed the type of propaganda that Gobbles and Hitler used against those that they finally used brute force to eliminate. This threat coming from those who keep telling us that they are ‘democrats, is indeed an abominable blasphemy.

We congratulate the Ethiopian people for not only exposing the fraudulent acts of the ruling party, but above all, for rescuing and reviving the very idea of Ethiopia through their own votes and voices. Democracy makes the idea of Ethiopia to be nurtured and the strengthening of this same idea to move in an irreversible arrow of time, space and trajectory. It is not being Derg, imperial, neftegna or chauvinist to say, and say it loudly, that Ethiopia was, is and will be forever. And it is in the interest of all the communities in the country that democracy strengthens the idea of Ethiopia. We must condemn the condemnation of the idea of Ethiopia by the current rulers.

We say thanks to the good sense of the people, the idea of Ethiopia has been resuscitated. What comes as surprising is that the current rulers wish to continue to lord it over an Ethiopia they are happy to denounce, whose history they hate, whose destiny they put in doubt, and whose democratic future they threaten routinely by their obnoxious rejection to listen to reason and respond to commonsense.

All Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia must protest the way the ruling party elements and their acolytes keep crapping and dragging Ethiopia back to a past that is largely no longer there or relevant to recreate or bring back. There is no Mengistu. There is no workers party. There are only people who have learned that their country’s future can be served best if they choose to submit to the democratic will of the people regardless of their particular history. The dynamics is new. The old story must not be used as muck to soil the new democratic political dynamics in the country.

We must reject strongly the conflation of self-determination with the very idea of Ethiopia. There is no need to destroy the idea of Ethiopia for communities to have self-recognition, self-definition, self-determination and self- arrangement. The right to remain different, to satisfy the needs to speak, write and learn in different languages, worship different deities, express different life-styles can be done within the very idea of Ethiopia to be. Right and needs claim and demands are different from the issue of having and defending the very idea of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, as an idea, metaphysics, concept, nation, and country can accommodate differences and diversities without any problem. The people in Ethiopia can express identities in an infinite number of ways, and there is no doubt that such identity-expression perfectly go along by retaining and in fact strengthening their Ethiopian oneness and national identity. We must protest against the continuation of the criminalisation of the very idea of Ethiopia by the current regime. We must even protest strongly to make it taboo by the regime that citizens uphold the idea of Ethiopia by showing patriotic feelings for their country and nation. We must never give in to such unwarranted assault by resisting tirelessly intellectually, morally, politically, psychologically to uphold the idea of Ethiopia. All Ethiopians must work purposefully, productively and without any retreat for Ethiopia to stand up and move forward and unite the diverse people and communities with democracy.

Whatever the regime elements say, the Ethiopian people by their deeds have demonstrated a striving to settle their major problems through democracy, peacefully and with public debate and dialogue, including the current rulers themselves. The supreme art for the people is to use their democracy to avoid fighting. The choice of democracy is paramount and preserving the gains inscribed in the democratic process is thus non-negotiable. No distraction by the current rulers will change the fact that the people have shown maturity to enter a new era of democracy. It is the ruling elite that is showing immaturity, being fearful that with democracy they will lose their monopoly of force, economy, information and political power. The democratic process in Ethiopia must and can continue in spite of the current rulers and not because of them. We must brace to defend this gain at any cost because the alternative-tyranny- in the long run will kill our nation.

We would like to state a simple observation. In our country it has been unfortunately the case that the passing of one regime after another is distinguished more for piling up crimes against human rights rather than democratic governance and development. Sad to say, it did not produce the democratic context to deal with such violations of human rights. There has not been an independent review of what happened in the past nor the present. There has not been a framework for making judgments about the many wrongs of the past and present. The past is still open to interpretation, including the self- justifying interpretation so malevolently and cruelly deployed and so often by the current rulers. Therefore no group has a monopoly of truth regarding the past. The past should be open to inspection and examination by an independent, impartial and non-controversial institution that must be established as a consequence of the process of democratisation that the country has embarked upon. For the first time, the opportunity exists through the democratic process to examine the past, and come to terms with it in order to align the past to be a factor for progress, freedom and development in the country. The same applies for the present situation. If there is any action to be taken against any individual for political crimes, it is only after the framework to deal with this problem has been established, not before, as the current rulers try to exploit the past for their own selfish advantage and to complicate the nation’s democratic trajectory.

All political groups that have been playing with the past and have been over zealous to cash in political advantage for themselves must desist from interpreting the past in a self-serving way to justify their own narrow and often selfish political goals, rather than to rectify the wrongs and injustices done to the people, nation and country for so long. As a consequence the country has been prevented or forced to live with the partisan interpretations of the past given by ascendant political groups. This practice must stop; we hope democracy will stop it for good. We in the NES believe that the time of democracy in Ethiopia is also the time to come to an impartial and objective interpretation of the past in order to lay the foundation for a purposeful and constructive future for all groups in the country. This reason of changing the autocratic paradigm with a democratic paradigm of politics in the country in order to address with a fresh perspective all the issues that have been unsettling the country’s future is an important matter that brooks no compromise. Ethiopia must embark on a new direction, more hopeful, more determined and more resourceful and peaceful to tackle its major problems with debate and communication rather than force and deception, as has been the supreme distinction of the conspiratorial and secretive politics of Meles and his likes.

2. No compromise: the democratic process must continue

Let us start with the positive achievement recognised by all and sundry to date: the forces that do not agree with each other have agreed on one thing- that the May 15, 2005 national election is a landmark for democratic transition in Ethiopia. Ruling party, opposition, foreign observing missions, EU-EOM and the Carter Centre, for example, all agree that May 15, 2005 was a day that the Ethiopian people voted to change the course of their nation’s history. We appreciate that foreign friends of the Ethiopian people have grasped this development, whilst the ruling party is busy finding quotations to disabuse the clear statements of the foreign observers in favour of Ethiopian democracy. We also appreciate that foreign observers have congratulated the Ethiopian people for their achievement and desire to take their own destiny in their own hands through democratic engagement and sustainable voice expression.

Where clear differences have emerged is in reading, describing, estimating and judging the post-election developments. The Government side understates the atmosphere of intimidation contained in its dual policies of reversing its losses by hurrying to change its policies well past the 11th hour after election day, that it thought did not win it votes on the one hand; and using force, emergency law and killing to bring about a favourable situation to extend its tenure. The protest against these measures of the regime by the people, the opposition and the observers, and the promotion of these measures as proper conduct and politics by the regime defined the nature of the post-election conflict between regime and opposition groups. The regime unleashed its propaganda machine and tried to muster a majority in parliament by ambushing the opposition and any one who tried to point out that the regime’s ways are improper in trying to bend the democratic will to its advantage. It used the NEBE fully to bring back nearly most of its discredited cabinet.

Reports after reports have stressed that the way to move forward and for democracy to grow in Ethiopia, is to learn to work together by the creation of an atmosphere for a vibrant multi-party political process in the country. Nothing is more significant than learning to respecting the will of the people and devising new rules and practices that ensure the recognition of the voters’ interests in order to move on improving governance and development in Ethiopia. The US State Department in its latest press statement on 16 September 2005 urges the: “Ethiopian government and all political parties to address the deficiencies in the electoral process, to avoid violence, and to cooperate in advancing democracy in Ethiopia. The State Department went to the extent of reminding the regime the following: “The governing Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has the responsibility to reach out to the opposition parties to ensure their full involvement in governance”.

As far as we know through various written reports and statements from the ruling party and the oppositions, the major hurdle to achieve an inclusive, peaceful, vibrant and multi-party political transition in Ethiopia is the behaviour and action of the ruling party. It has not intellectually, politically and psychologically reached the normal conclusion that the historic time has arrived for Ethiopia to embark on an all- inclusive and vibrant multi-party political process to sustain the democratic transition and process in an irreversible trajectory. For the ruling party, the meaning of multi-party politics means an overall control of political power by a single party. The rulers cannot conceptualise a parliament where they do not command an absolute majority. They wish to have a rubber stamping and toothless parliament where representatives from other parties simply occupy seats in the parliament to vote always in a minority without making any changes in legislative and other decisions. This invitation to the opposition parties into parliament is no invitation to debate public policy. It is a condemnation to surrender. In his recent interview in ‘Abiyotawi Democracy’ quoted above, Meles made it clear that there is no difference between the on-going parliament and the coming parliament. Meles means by this that the opposition can participate in the debate but the decision will be made by EPRDF as it has a NEBE -confirmed majority vote. So what is the meaning of engagement in the debates in parliament, if it is already a foregone conclusion that the debate has no relevance to affect the nature and quality of public engagement in decision–making?

Meles unashamedly stated in his interview in Abiyotawi Democracy newspaper that his government is working to orchestrate and instigate a stiff popular rejection against the elected opposition members in order to prepare the way for taking legal action against them. This is in line with what we have witnessed of the abuse and misuse of the media to prepare a cut and paste defamatory programme against the opposition members. Harassment of opposition MPs is what Meles has in mind as a welcoming message for the next five-year objectives of his party. Meles categorically stated in the newspaper that all dissenting voices including the free press, local NGOs and the opposition parties are Derg remnants rolled into one. This condemnation of elected opposition MPs as Derg members does not augur well to cultivate democratic spirit and deliberation. Meles shows political contempt to the elected MPs and by inference the people who elected them by denouncing them as unreconstructed derg cadres liable and marked to be assaulted by the regime at any time.

For Meles, unless the opposition parties are ready to accept the “victory” of his party and submit to its rule, their resistance will be met by punitive measures. No invitation for dialogue and no invitation to work together with opposition parties and other dissenting groups.

3. Vibrant Parliament, Effective State and Engaged Society

Meles speaks as if the election story is over and EPDRF will be the Government as confirmed by NEBE. He has called that attention must be geared to addressing the main task of poverty reduction.

First: What Meles actually failed to notice or deliberately ignored is that poverty will not be tackled effectively in a situation in which the civil society, NGO groups, the opposition groups, the intellectuals, the students and largely the Ethiopian people are disengaged, mistrustful of the leadership, the state and the rulers that they have now fully known to come to power through riggings and the backdoor through the generous support of the NEBE. Poverty will not be tackled in a hostile and exclusive environment in which the ruling group believes that its policy, rule and diktat are the only best option. For Meles and his likes, anybody that contradicts or opposes their position is either an enemy or ignorant.

Second: Donor funding under the present circumstances of state- society relationship is very unlikely to contribute to poverty alleviation in Ethiopia. It is only when there is a legitimate state whose effectiveness and capability is derived from the existence, nurturing and sustenance of engaged citizens and society that money from outside can be productive. Dictatorship comes in between cementing the relationship of an effective state and engaged society from which the capability and competence to solve key problems is founded. Aid money usually ends in black holes when there is a tenuous state- society relationship. The argument by some that others from outside should pour in aid money in the absence of the pre requisites and conditions of democratic engagement, citizen participation in public decision- making, and constructive democratic learning and development is misplaced and misguided. Donor money can make a difference only if there is an effective state linked to a democratically engaged society. We should recall that dictatorial regimes are well known in returning back the aid money to the rich nations’ banks and businesses through corruption and wasteful spending. Nigeria’s establishment and that of the D.R. Congo’s have served as the notorious cases, for having used their rich mineral resources to benefit businesses and banks of the rich nations. Unless governance is rooted in a democratic foundation and public office holders are made and become accountable to the people or even better the aid money is directly controlled and invested by the people, there is a high probability that aid money will end up benefiting the elites and the political groups that monopolize political, economic, military and media power rather than the people or the poor. Thus the first necessary condition to make aid work is to create an effective state with an engaged society that is sustained with path dependency and irreversibility. In Ethiopia, the people have shown that democracy is their glue to mediate between an effective state and engaged society. This is an important reason for donors never to retreat in their stand to help deepen and broaden democratic engagement in Ethiopia without tire. If they want their support to have consequence that makes a difference, they must not see the development of Ethiopian democracy expediently. They must pursue it with principle, and not as Jeffrey Sachs wants to believe that a massive infusion of donor money can create an ‘African green revolution’ by a particularly ugly and uncongenial obsequious flattering, strange as it may sound, this or that African dictator he seems to like personally. Incidentally, both the World Bank and the IMF have already said that there is no way that Africa can meet any of the UN Millennium development goals! What this tells us is that the issue is more than finding technical fix, it requires serious democratisation if social and economic transformation is take place irreversibly.

4. What is to be done now?

The Ethiopian people must continue to strive for democracy. There will be no retreat until democratic change is fully attained. There is a need to undertake inclusive dialogue of all the relevant stakeholders as demanded by all those who wish democracy to be embedded in state and society in Ethiopia. The call for dialogue and public debate must not be partial but all-inclusive. The call by Meles to invite only the OLF for dialogue is divisive and disingenuous. It is once more the worn-out tactic to try to use the OLF to ward off the current threat posed by democracy to ruling party power. Once this threat subsides, the OLF will be thrown out again. OLF should be saying once smitten, twice shy. We have called time and time again for the OLF to be part of the national dialogue. It should have been invited to participate in the national election. We also believe that the issues the OLF is keen about- the self-determination of the Oromo people- would be solved through democratic engagement of citizens in the context of genuine democratic transition in Ethiopia. It is important the OLF demand with others for the foundation and establishment of an all inclusive and deliberative democracy, dialogic democracy, communicative democracy, and participatory democracy in order to find a shared basis to reconstitute freshly the idea of Ethiopia and move on by creating effective states indissolubly linked with a democratically engaged society to create capabilities that will solve the major problems of the country with an enduring and sustainable impact. We find the recent overture to reach out only to the OLF by Meles highly opportunistic and diversionary. We must recall it is the same Meles and his group who did not care to invite the OLF to participate in the election. It is the same Meles and his group who have refused to answer the letter of invitation by the opposition leaders for dialogue in order to create a non-intimidating atmosphere to promote a well-functioning vibrant multi-party democracy. With a mean spirit and characteristic small- mindedness, Meles chooses to play politics and refuses to deal with the problem of the next parliament and instead tries to invite the OLF who will not be in this parliament. It will not be surprising give the way Meles has treated the opposition parties, if they are forced to boycott parliament. The whole world can only blame Meles and his group, should the opposition decide to boycott parliament. The call for dialogue is for the people, nation, elected representatives as a whole. Meles cannot disabuse the nation for long by inviting groups one by one opening in order to make it opportune for his own group to divide and conquer. Ethiopia must come out for good from the shadowy, cruel, secretive, conspiratorial, intrigue-full politics of dictatorship and autocracy.

5. Proposals for moving forward

The next few weeks are critical and we call on the people of Ethiopia, the opposition and friends of Ethiopian democracy both inside and outside Ethiopia to continue struggling for Ethiopia’s peaceful democratic transition.

1. We say: Shall the opposition waste the electoral gains of the voters? No. We say: Should the oppositions submit to Meles’s dictum? Never. The purpose of democracy is more important than the arena of struggle, though choosing the arena can be decisive as well. Every electoral gain should be used to mount peaceful and protracted popular movement to pressure the Meles’s regime to accept negotiation, inclusiveness and a vibrant multi-party politics. Every electoral gain should be used as a platform for popular resistance against tyranny to facilitate the much sought after historic democratic transition in Ethiopia in order to develop democratic institutions and procedures to engage with the nation’s critical problems from poverty to Eritrea in a peaceful and democratic framework.

2. There can be no retreat in deepening and widening the democratic process. There should be no pressure on the opposition parties to accept the electoral theft that has been witnessed during this election even if opposition parties were to decide to enter parliament. It is a matter of principle not to condone deception and electoral theft. Seating in a rubberstamp parliament will not help to move forward the democratic process in the situation in which Meles and his group have abundantly made clear officially and several times that they will make it very difficult for the opposition to operate and participate in the coming government. Entering the parliament by the opposition should be made only after an agreement is reached that the public media, the court, the police and security forces and the election board would be structured and made to function without party loyalty and partisanship.
3. There can be no retreat from the just and fair position that Ethiopia’s major problems can only be solved by making it possible to expand the democratic possibility and space and not by restricting it to make room only for ruling party dominance in continuing to monopolise the economy, military, politics, the legislature, the judiciary and the media.

4. There can be no surrender owing to fears of ruling party threats to create brutality in Ethiopia, to criminalize the opposition by denigrating elected officials as cadres of the Mengistu regime, and using the media to connect them to a past that is not the major problem of the Ethiopian people now. Now the problem is Meles and his ruling elites’ desire to shore up their position and stay in power with their own exclusive control. It is not Mengistu who is long gone, but Meles who is the problem for democracy now. Time is ticking, but it is Meles that should be converted either to be part of the solution or remain as he is now as the major barrier to Ethiopian democracy. Meles has acted in a way that the people and growing international opinion has identified him as the main problem blocking all progress to a better democratic future and direction for the country.

5. There can be no surrender to the oppression of the idea of Ethiopia by those whose primary distinction is the infamy of coming to power and clinging to it by fighting the very idea of Ethiopia including fighting also, as it is getting clearer by the day now the very idea of a democratically integral Ethiopia. They should be on the defensive and the Ethiopian people must be on the offensive in defence of the unity of Ethiopia, the country, its peoples, communities, society, culture and identities.

6. We call and demand that Ethiopia needs a new political framework that should be anchored in democratic and human right principles to institutionalise democratic governance to articulate and shape its future. We need a minimum national covenant that includes every dissenting voice to participate in searching for a peaceful political framework that is anchored on democratic and human rights principles. The global order must be rebuilt on the principles of human rights, democracy and democratic governance, and our nation must put its own house in order to be a factor in shaping this global order of human rights, democracy and effective democratic governance.

7. We demand that there must be an independent and impartial judicial body that should examine past and on-going political crimes, alleged mass killings, and other crimes associated with past and current political movements, parties and personalities.

8. It is becoming clear now that the main barrier to effectuate Ethiopia’s democratic transition is the ruling party. We call upon the people of Ethiopia, the opposition parties, friends of democracy both inside and outside Ethiopia to unite the many to pressurize the few chief elements of the ruling party to enter into broad dialogue to find solutions to the electoral problems in the country as a prelude to solve other key national problems. This will be our last call for the Meles group to listen to reason, not to go and form a Government that would be ‘laughed out of town’, to use his own words, by the people who feel cheated and abused for the way the riggings have stolen their votes and tampered with their true voices.
9. We call on the Meles regime to take what is becoming by the hour the last chance for including all in a dialogue to reach a covenant for Ethiopia’s peaceful democratic transition. We would like to notify all concerned that the problems of Ethiopia can be solved only if the people are part and parcel of the decision- making process, and condemn all attempts to divide them by using selective invitations and divisive measures. We can fully understand and the entire international community must also comprehend, if opposition parties are forced to boycott parliament. It is their decision and the international community should back them and Ethiopian democracy above everything else.

10. We call on the police and armed forces never to obey an order to kill any Ethiopian who is struggling peacefully to bring about democratic transition. Let the armed forces know that the loss of life of one Ethiopian diminishes us all including themselves. Do not give succour to Meles and his hard-core inner circle to make good their threats to kill by using you. We call upon you to defend democracy and the people and not those who want to impose themselves on the people in perpetuity by destroying the idea of Ethiopia and the country’s chance to become a democratically renascent Ethiopia.

Concluding Remark

We would like to continue the struggle for democracy until the peoples expressed will for seeing a peaceful democratic transition is realised in practice and reality. We plan to prepare a document and circulate to all groups- to deepen the national public debate, dialogue and establish hopefully an agreed and shared covenant that all may be able to agree as a shared principle to move the collective achievement of the Ethiopian people forward. This canon or covenant will be produced in order to continue the momentum and spectacular and unprecedented mobilisation for the democratic rebirth of Ethiopia. Never have we witnessed such mobilisation in the nation’s history in peace- time as people have been now for the worthy cause of collectively shaping through peaceful deliberation their country’s democratic future. This mobilisation must be sustained and continued. We plan to distribute the draft document widely and seek comments, criticisms and alterations before calling an international and all- inclusive conference to facilitate the spreading and deepening of democratic learning and development in Ethiopia. We hope to receive feedback and comment from all parties involved in Ethiopian politics that includes political groupings, civic society organisations, prominent individuals, and other friends of Ethiopia that have been involved keenly in the current electoral process from the EU to the US State Department and others. We call all those who agree to continue the democratic struggle and fully coordinate their time, their suggestions and resources to bring about an open, deep and fully participatory and inclusive engagement to shape Ethiopia’s future only through an all-inclusive, peaceful, just and humane dialogue.

Finally, we recognise that supreme art of struggle is to shape Ethiopia’s present and future without any brutality and bloodshed. This dictum can hold true only if we unite the many to defeat Meles and his small clique around him by even inviting those who have been misguided in mistaking supporting Meles ‘s arrogance ironically as worthwhile. We would like the broadest possible internal and external alignment for the purpose of spreading an unflinching commitment for instituting Ethiopian democracy in our soil. We would even appeal and call for a new and open EPDRF, the OLF and all other forces operating in the country to unite under the banner of democracy to create everlasting good in the land. We appeal to all the political forces in the country no matter who they are to care for human life and justice and heed the call to listen to reason: We say: Open your ears to hear, your eyes to see clearly the problem of not accommodating the democratic will of the people, your brain to think and solve the major problems of the country seriously with foresight and intelligence, your heart to feel for the peoples’ well being and the country’s better future, and your soul to gain wisdom through the art of conversation, discussion, deliberation and communication to create a democratic and vibrant Ethiopia for all its people without any exception.

Professor Mammo Muchie, Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Berhanu G. Balcha, Vice- Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Tekola Worku, Secretary of NES-Scandinavian Chapter

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