The darling of Columbia, Meles has been accused of crime against humanity for the slaughtering of almost half of the Anauk tribes in December, 2003. To add insult to injury, Meles keeps fueling tribal conflicts, primarily to divide and conquer 80 million Ethiopians and to keep them at loggerhead against each other. Some fear his ethnic policy is laying a foundation for another Rwandan like African genocide.
Although many Ethiopians are on the verge of starvation, Meles insists on using millions of Ethiopia’s treasury to promote his image as a world leader by wining and dining professors, Presidents of Universities like Bollinger and congressmen and senators like Inhofe.
At the same time, Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa that does not practice capitalism, because Meles through his party owns all the factors of production including land, banking, industries, telecommunication, as well as the Internet, thus depriving the majority of Ethiopians the potential to earn their livelihood under a free market system. He has also repeatedly refused to liberalize the economy, subjecting this poor country to permanent perennial famine and starvation.
Attorney Birtukan Mekdessa, a mother of a six-year-old daughter, is in jail for life because she ran against Meles in 2005 and during her Supreme Court tenure refused to bend the rules at the behest of Meles Zenawi. While she is one of the luckiest because hundreds of Ethiopians were killed in the aftermath of the 2005 election when Meles refused to give up power, even though he was soundly defeated.
In a country where the majority of the people are subsistence farmers, land has also become a political weapon; as landowners and farmers became tenants, and any failure to pay rent or political deviation from ruling party line results in eviction.
Besides owning major industries directly or through its political party, the Meles regime has monopolistic control of all communication and the Internet, making Ethiopia the most expensive place in the world for Internet access and the least technologically developed country in the world, second only to Niger of Africa. Monopolistic control of technology, land and industries by this megalomaniac regime has become a road block to Ethiopia’s economic development and thus a primary cause of poverty and famine.
Using Al Qaida as his punching bag, Meles has bamboozled President Bush and Obama to become an ally of the U.S. thus getting unfettered military and economic support to continue his oppressive system without any commitment to lift his draconian oppression of the Ethiopian people or liberalizing the economy.
Despite the world’s move towards a more open society, Meles on the other hand closed all the doors for freedom of expression and free speech. With the help of the Chinese and Mekele Institute of Technology (MIT), Meles has created a sophisticated spy network to silence any means of criticism or opposition to the status quo.
Meles controls the single Television station and short wave radio transmission services in Ethiopia, while blocking websites and all international broadcasts including VOA. The print media is no exception. Meles has also become a pioneer in charging American and African journalists for treason. Currently, a number of VOA reporters including Mr. Addisu Abebe have been convicted of treason for just conducting their journalistic duties.
Despite Columbia University’s desire to provide a forum for the Ethiopian dictator, the U.S. government can end this nightmare in Ethiopia. Unlike other rogue dictators such as Iran and N. Korea, Meles lives off American tax payer generosity, and can be whipped into shape if the U.S. stops giving excuses for the misery and deprivation Meles is causing to the people of Ethiopia.
