WASHINGTON — Key U.S. lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, have expressed concern for political conditions in Ethiopia, citing authoritarian tendencies by its government as well as human rights abuses such as the continued detention of a prominent opposition leader.
Leading off a March 24 hearing on U.S. policy toward Africa, Representative Donald Payne (Democrat, New Jersey), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, said of the ruling party, “I am deeply concerned and troubled about the deteriorating [political] conditions in Ethiopia. The EPRDF [Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front] is becoming increasingly totalitarian.”
The panel’s highest-ranking Republican, Representative Chris Smith (New Jersey), added, “Unfortunately, Prime Minister Meles [Zenawi] shows deteriorating signs of human rights practices.”
Payne expressed special concern for Birtukan Mideksa, a former Ethiopian judge and opposition leader convicted in 2005 of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in prison. She was pardoned in 2007, but rearrested and her sentence reinstated in December 2008.
The report added, “There were credible reports that Birtukan’s mental health deteriorated significantly during the year.” While critical of the Ethiopian government’s treatment of dissidents and the conditions of their imprisonment, the State Department report acknowledged that “the government continued efforts to train police and army recruits in human rights.”
Asked to comment by Payne, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said: “Ethiopia’s human rights record could be far better than it is right now. There are a number of allegations made that have been documented in the State Department’s Human Rights Report that indicate shortcomings in the government’s treatment of individuals that come under arrest. We encourage the government to treat everyone in a humane fashion.”
On Birtukan, Carson told the panel, “We have asked the Ethiopian authorities why she was rearrested after having been paroled and whether, in fact, we can expect her release anytime soon.”
During an official visit to Ethiopia three weeks ago, Carson said, he met with Prime Minister Meles and raised the case of Birtukan as well as a number of other individuals who are being held by the Ethiopian authorities. “I encouraged the government to act in a responsible fashion in dealing with these cases and noted very clearly that the continued imprisonment of people like Ms. Birtukan undermined the credibility and image of the Ethiopian government.”
Carson said he also spent more than an hour going over a range of issues related to democracy and good governance and “the need to have free and fair elections” during his discussion with the prime minister.
“We are watching with great interest … and encouraging the government of Ethiopia, as well as the opposition parties, to act responsibly during the election campaign and during the [May] election itself,” Carson said. “We think it is incumbent on the [Ethiopian] government to do everything it possibly can to ensure that the playing field is level in the run-up to the election, that there are opportunities for the opposition parties to participate prior to the elections in their campaigns and that they be allowed to vote freely and fairly on election day.
“We do not want to see a repetition of the violence that followed the flawed election of 2005,” Carson told the lawmakers.
Earl Gast, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) senior deputy assistant administrator for Africa, also cited the importance of elections to the democratic process in Africa, telling the House panel, “We believe that leaders who manipulate elections are living on borrowed time.”
“As African societies and political systems continue to develop, the expectations of people toward their governments will continue to rise,” he said. Political processes that don’t meet these expectations can trigger instability and even violent conflict, which can set a country’s development progress back a generation.”
And with more than 20 elections scheduled for Africa in 2010, the official said USAID in 2008–2009 devoted about $89 million for political competition and consensus building in Africa — a third of the development agency’s budget for democracy and governance on the continent. “Our goal is to support the creation of fair and credible election systems, not to determine electoral winners,” he said.
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says he is prepared to order jamming of VOA broadcasts in Amharic, the country’s main official language. Mr. Meles compared VOA Amharic to the hate media that incited the Rwanda genocide.
The Ethiopian leader denies having authorized the interference VOA Amharic listeners have been experiencing since February 22. But speaking to reporters Thursday, he acknowledged ordering preparations for jamming, and said as soon as the equipment is working properly, he would give the go ahead.
“We have to know before we make the decision to jam, whether we have the capacity to do it,” said Meles Zenawi. “But I assure you if they assure me at some future date that they have the capacity to jam it, I will give them the clear guideline to jam it. But so far there has not been that formal decision to jam.”
Mr. Meles said what listeners may have been experiencing for the past four weeks is testing of the jamming equipment.
The prime minister compared VOA’s Amharic Service to Radio Mille Collines, which broadcast hate messages blamed for inciting the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
“We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda,” he said.
Voice of America Director Danforth Austin issued a statement Thursday saying, “any comparison of VOA programming to the genocidal broadcasts of Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines is incorrect and unfortunate.”
He added, “the VOA deplores jamming as a form of media censorship wherever it may occur.”
The statement said VOA’s Amharic Service is required by law to provide accurate, objective and comprehensive news and information and abide by the highest journalistic standards.
Austin also noted that “while VOA is always ready to address responsible complaints about programming, the Government of Ethiopia has not initiated any official communication in more than two years.”
VOA language service broadcasts to Ethiopia have been jammed in the past around election times. The next election for parliament is just over two months away. But in past instances, the government denied being responsible for the jamming.
Monitors say the recent jamming has only been aimed at Amharic broadcasts, but has not affected Afan Oromo and Tigrinya language service transmissions to Ethiopia. They are heard on the same frequencies before and after the Amharic broadcast.
The Voice of America is a multi-media international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government. VOA broadcasts more than 1500 hours of news and other programming every week in 45 languages to an audience of more than 125 million people.
