The travesty of scholarship and Zenawi’s crimes against humanity

April 18, 2001

The travesty of scholarship and Zenawi’s crimes against humanity

Selam Beyene, Ph.D.

MELES ZENAWI was awarded
an MA degree in Business Administration by the Open University in 1995, and an
MSc in Economics by Erasmus
University in 2004, while
perpetrating egregious crimes against humanity. Rumors abound now he has given
orders to scholars in the country to provide feedback on a thesis that he is working
on for an advanced diploma in tandem with his relentless efforts to promote a
policy of genocide by mass starvation [1], and to suppress basic human rights
through systematic imprisonment, harassment and killings of innocent civilians
[2].

Although dictators
are generally known for the extreme measures they take to project a false
impression of grandeur and to disguise their crimes and inferiority complex
through absurd propaganda, Zenawi’s obsession with the ivory tower as a cover
for his vices has no parallel in the annals of despots in power. It might come
as a surprise that a leader of a country like Ethiopia, which
is in the lowest ranks with respect to every conceivable measure of human
development, could make time for advanced study. However, time is no constraint for an
autocrat, who has no allegiance to the country he rules, who does not abide by
any laws, and who subjects the constitution to the service of his selfish interest
and those of his cronies.

Institutions of
higher learning may not be held accountable for future actions of their
graduates. However, it is contrary to reason for a university to claim it upholds
the principles of fairness and justice while consciously admitting to its programs
of study tyrants and despots with proven records of human rights violations and
crimes against humanity.

Ironically, a stated
mission of the Open University, one of Zenawi’s preferred institutions of
erudition, is to promote “educational opportunity and social justice”
[3]. His other alma mater, Erasmus
University, declares that
its “… driving forces are academic curiosity, critical reflection and
social engagement”[4].

The lofty ideals of
these universities are in sharp contradiction to their decisions to have an association
with a despot with well-established records of anti-academic and
anti-intellectual campaigns, which include the suppression of freedom of speech
and other fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The world first
witnessed Zenawi’s viciousness against the academic establishment when in
January of 1993 he ordered his police to shoot and mutilate hundreds of Addis Ababa University students for peacefully
exercising their freedom of expression. Subsequently, Zenawi fired over 42
professors from the same university when the academics expressed opposition to
the brutal force the dictator used against the students. On April 18, 2001 Zenawi’s special forces
police opened fire on a peaceful protest organized by students of the
university, and killed at least 41 people and wounded hundreds [5]. More recently,
in the aftermath of his infamous defeat in the May 2005 elections, Zenawi
unleashed his special forces to mow down 193 unarmed civilians, and sent
thousands of university students to concentration camps [6].

Since he assumed
power, Zenawi has used economic deprivation as a tool of repression, and has
subjected the vast majority of the people to immeasurable suffering. As the
following facts suggest, no dictator in history has so blatantly and effectively
utilized mass starvation for the purpose of propagating authoritarian rule to
the same degree as Zenawi has done so.

According to a July 28, 2003 report of
the New York Times, in 2003 more
than 12 million Ethiopians were at risk of starvation, half of those children
under 15.
Based on a recent report of the UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), eight million Ethiopians are chronically food
insecure and at least 3.4 million Ethiopians are in need of emergency food
relief.
The Centre for Research on Globalization
disclosed that several million people in the most prosperous agricultural
regions have been driven into starvation [7].
On June 23, 2008, the Boston Globe reported: “People have become so desperate for food that they
are eating seeds that were meant for their next harvest. 4.5 million Ethiopians
are in need right now”[8].

Meanwhile, Zenawi
has taken effective measures to perpetuate the famine for political ends, i.e.,
to penalize ethnic and political groups that did not vote for him, and to send
a macabre message to others who may dare challenge his authoritarian rule in
the future.

Remarkably, in a March 18, 2008, address
to his rubber-stamp parliament, he unabashedly denied the veracity of
drought-related deaths [9].
Recently, he ordered his Deputy Prime
Minister to denounce reports of the current famine [10].

According to the June 13, 2008 issue of The Economist, “he has banned
photographs of the starving and has told field workers not to give
information to foreign journalists”.

As the Edinburgh
Evening News (26^th July 2008) correctly observed: “The
catastrophe is not an accident of nature. The squalor and folly of the Addis Ababa regime needs
to be corrected.”

On the political
front, Zenawi has virtually incapacitated opposition parties with brazen use of
torture and imprisonment.

Following his defeat in the May 2005
elections, he incarcerated leaders of the opposition and clung to power
illegally [11].
As recently as last April, he conducted
sham elections, excluding viable opposition through systematic
intimidation, harassment and coercion. According to a Human Rights Watch
report, candidates allied with his party were allowed to “… run unopposed in the vast majority of
constituencies across Ethiopia.
Local ruling party officials systematically targeted opposition candidates
for violence, intimidation, and other human rights abuses since the
registration period began. Particularly in areas with established
opposition support, local officials arbitrarily detained opposition
candidates, searched their property without warrant, and in some cases
physically assaulted them”[12].

With regard to crimes against
humanity, the charges leveled against Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic by the
International Court of Justice pale in comparison to the crimes committed by
Zenawi against the various ethnic groups in Ethiopia:

In the Gambella area, the Anuaks have
been subjected to a government-sponsored genocide, and many more have been
displaced from their homes [13].
In the Ogaden region, Zenawi has committed
war crimes, burning homes and property, and firing upon and killing
fleeing civilians [14,15,16,17].
In other regions, including Oromia and
Amhara, Zenawi has been waging covert and overt attacks against the
inhabitants creating an atmosphere of siege and terror [18].

Zenawi has suppressed
freedom of speech and the press, while giving a deceptive impression of an open
society to the outside world.

In a recent report, the Committee to
Protect Journalists found Ethiopia
at the top of a list of 10 countries where press freedom has deteriorated
over the past five years [19] .
The present incarceration of Tewodros
Kassahun (a.k.a. Teddy Afro) on trumped up charges is a glaring example of
the policy of the dictator to stifle the voices of musicians and singers
from reflecting the misery of the people [20].

John Dewey once wrote:
“When men think and believe in one
set of symbols and act in ways which are contrary to their professed and
conscious ideas, confusion and insincerity are bound to result.” Thus, it
is a travesty of scholarship for an institution of higher learning, that
professes social justice, to open its doors to despots and tyrants with crimes so egregious as those committed by Zenawi. Irrespective of the source, the money the
tyrants pay to these institutions for their diplomas is money tainted with the
blood, sweat and tears of millions of helpless people. The credentials these
institutions bestow upon the tyrants are potent weapons used to legitimize the
authoritarian rules of the despots and to perpetuate their regimes through terror
and repression.