Last December 2005, we had the good news of a balanced and an unwavering support for democracy and rule of law from EU’s distinguished parliament. That historic EU support for democracy has been preceded and followed by numerous demonstrations by the Diaspora in several European capitals, and in North American cities to request governments to help bring an end to Meles’s brutal dictatorship.
One would have thought that the Hon. Dr. Beyene, US and Austrian Ambassadors and the World Bank Director in Ethiopia would also take heed of EU’s December 2005 resolutions, the promises of December 2005 of World Bank President Wolfowitz to Ethiopians in Washington, D.C. and the ever increasing support given in western capitals for democratization in Ethiopia. However, during the first half of February 2006, we have had the sad news of Drs. Beyene and Bulcha Demeksa, and the Ambassadors of Austria, the EU, the US Charge D’Affairs, and the Director of the World Bank colluding with EPRDF to give further life to dictatorship and destroy CUD by endorsing the illegal imprisonment of CUD leaders, members and supporters, journalists, publishers of the free press, students and leaders of CSOs.
The actions of the Hon. Bulcha Demeksa may be understandable since EPRDF has recently terrorized his party by making the usual fabricated accusations. The Hon. Dr. Beyene, on the other hand, may be simply taking advantage of an opportunity to strike a deal with Meles Zenawi by supporting the illegal imprisonment of CUD’s leaders and supporters, by abandoning demands for the release of members of the free press and thousands of other victims incarcerated in various distant, hostile and dirty prisons, and by also abandoning those tortured, disabled and killed in various parts of the country since 2005.
He had similarly abandoned a former ally, All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP), led by Hailu Shawel, in 2003, when he suddenly stopped all relations with AEUP and with the Joint Action for Democracy in Ethiopia (JADE), a coalition with Dr. Merera’s ONC and his own CAFPDE, upon being invited to the unity conference in Washington, D.C. in July 2003. Later, selected as the first Chairman of UEDF, his attitude towards AEUP was reported to be have hardened. [ JADE was formed at the initiative of AEUP to jointly prepare for the elections of May 2005. JADE died because of Dr. Beyene after the formation of UEDF in July 2003]. Dr. Beyene appears to have also abandoned Dr. Merera’s ONC at this time.
The Hon. Dr. Beyene was also a member of the Transitional Parliament in the early 1990s. He had readily endorsed the dismemberment of Eritrea, and he was then rewarded by Meles by appointing him as Vice-Minister of Education. One wonders what his reward will be this time around for his betrayal of CUD, the free press, students and thousands of other innocent citizens killed, maimed, tortured or thrown illegally into prison, and for his vital services to legitimize EPRDF’s illegitimate rule.
The Hon. Ana Gomes of the EU EOM has given informative reports on the elections of May 15, 2005, and that of August 25, 2005 makes the final remarks that “ The EU EOM regrets that the 15th of May post-polling day irregularities, delays and opacity of the counting and aggregation of data, plus the subsequent flawed handling of complaints and re-runs of elections, and the poorly organized electoral process conducted in Somali Region, did not live up to international standards and to the aspirations of Ethiopians for democracy, clearly manifested by the record number showing up to cast their votes on May 15.” This is also exactly why Ethiopians refuse to accept the legitimacy of EPRDF’s rule.
In October 1995, Prime Minister Meles met with American Ethiopianists, including Prof. Theodore M. Vestal, Professor of Political Sciences at Oklahoma State University, who subsequently wrote about their meeting in Ethiopian Register [Ethiopian Register, February 1996, pp. 18-24]. Prof Vestal had observed that Prime Minister Meles had noted “ the need for the government to have a vibrant political opposition presenting alternative programs to those of EPRDF.… the opposition was ‘marginalized’ because they lacked a cause that could mobilize the people. … the opposition should go into the field to win the hearts and minds of the peasants as the TPLF/REPRDF had done … ”
The prayers of Meles were heard; the opposition did present a convincing political program in May 2005 and won the hearts and minds of both rural and urban Ethiopia, winning with a landslide victory in Addis Ababa, and in most parts of the country. Ethiopia’s distinguished sons and daughters and young democrats of all ethnic, religious, age and social groups joined hands for the first time in 14 years to break EPRDF’s archaic ethnic barrier, and put EPRDF on the run. EPRDF was completely vanquished, but its post-election response included the murder of unarmed citizens using military tanks and machine-guns.
Using a partisan electoral system and its oppressive military/security machine, EPRDF stole the elections. However, CUD gave priority to democratization and to Ethiopia’s long-term welfare, and called on EPRDF to participate in building an enabling environment and democratic institutions by issuing the following 8 pre-conditions for CUD’s entry to parliament:
National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has to be neutral and independent. [ NEBE’s partisanship had been admitted by EPRDF itself in the January 2005 amendments of Electoral Proclamation 111/1995 to make NEBE consistent with Art. 102 of the Constitution . NEBE is now chaired by Kemal Bedri who is also President of the Federal Supreme Court, which oversees all federal courts, President of the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, which looks into constitutional reviews, and Chairman of the Judicial Administrative Council which hires and fires judges. Hence, any legal complaints against NEBE have no hope of justice in courts which are all controlled by EPRDF through Kemal Bedri and his TPLF associates].
The dependence on EPRDF had also prompted EU EOM to state in its report of 25 August that “ it is crucial for the authority and credibility of NEBE to ensure that the structure of its direction is genuinely independent of the Executive and that its officials at all levels are not to be perceived as agents of the Administration or the ruling party by the people.”
The independence of the Judiciary has to be guaranteed. [This is also provided for in Art. 78 of the Constitution, but it has always been violated by EPRDF ]
There has to be equitable access to public mass media, and private electronic mass media have to be allowed to operate. [This is provided for in Art. 29 of the Constitution, but it has always been violated by EPRDF]
An Independent Investigation Commission should be established to investigate the criminal acts of June 8, 2005.
Police, and National Defense Forces have to be neutral and independent of all political parties. [This is provided for in Art. 87 of the Constitution, but it has been frequently violated by EPRDF]
All Parliamentary rules of Procedure and regulations regarding Addis Ababa’s Administration, issued after May 15, 2005, have to be cancelled.
All citizens imprisoned on account of their political orientation have to be released, and all opposition party offices shut down by the Ruling Party have to have security to reopen again.
An independent Commission needs to be established to stop all harassment and attacks on the opposition and to oversee the implementation of the above 7 preconditions. [This is provided for in Art. 55 of the Constitution.]
These pre-conditions have been supported by all those that appreciates the significance of democratic institutions as essential building blocks for liberal democracy. The absence of democratic institutions had led Ethiopia to increasingly more poverty, three successive fraudulent elections, including that of May 2005, a foolish war, several inter-ethnic conflicts and instability in the Horn of Africa !
None of these pre-conditions advocates war, or use of force against the Government. Unlike leaders of the Ruling Party, none of the opposition leaders had said anything illegal during the political campaigns; CUD’s election manifesto rules out the use of force to gain political power. In fact, the repeated messages of CUD’s leadership have been that Ethiopia has to break out of the cycle of violence to change any unpopular governments by resorting to the ballot box to achieve the transfer of political power.
However, CUD’s emergence as a strong political force in May 2005 so scared Meles that he decided to imprison CUD’s leaders and members. He did that after first illegally removing the parliamentary immunity of CUD’s MPs on the opening day of Parliament last October 2005 under the pretext that he wanted to be able to take immediate action if CUD leaders ever broke the law in future. However, Meles came out with his pre-meditated charges for CUD’s leaders overnight, and threw them into jail right away. Everybody, including Meles, knows very well that there are no criminals, thugs or bank robbers within CUD’s leadership or membership; such creatures belong elsewhere. Meles needs to also realize that killing unarmed citizens or keeping CUD’s leaders and citizens behind bars cannot buy him peace.
EPRDF has already sentenced its CUD victims, has lined up partisan judges and prosecutors, and assembled hundreds of its own guns and bombs as exhibits, forged CUD’s party symbol and cooked up anti-government plots, and forced CUD members to be photographed with EPRDF’s own guns; it has exploded several bombs, and they are again attributed to CUD; 367 witnesses have been recruited and trained to incriminate CUD leaders and keep them in jail for years. EPRDF has recruited so many witnesses so as to take some ten years to present them, as for Derg, thereby to ensure that CUD’s leaders will also remain or die behind bars. All this reflects the well-known EPRDF treachery and deceit.
The trumped-up charges of treason against CUD, journalists and other members of CSOs are outright nonsense. America’s repeated call for speedy justice, which is meaningless and impossible in today’s Ethiopia, has no ground since the only criminal here is EPRDF. Meles had often threatened to shut down the free press so as to blockade all information to the people; it has succeeded by shutting down the entire genuinely free press. However, Voice of Germany and VOA proved too hard to crack or jam completely. We are astonished that the US Embassy is quiet after such an attack on this core democratic institution.
Continuing with the attack on CUD, it was declared null and void by illegally denying it registration last October by Meles’s National Election Board (NEBE). All required documents were submitted before CUD’s leadership was rounded up and thrown into jail in October 2005. Lidetu Ayalew, the most pernicious agent of the dictatorship, had also attended the very same meetings where his party’s leadership had decided to form the united CUD party in his presence. It was on the basis of the decisions and letters of agreements of the Central Committees of all four parties constituting CUD that the CUD’s leadership had requested registration as a party. However, the registration was denied by NEBE’s Registrar using Lidetu Ayalew’s irrelevant letter of objection as a lame excuse.
It is laughable that CUD is declared non-existent when it is the largest opposition party in the Country. On the other hand, the Speaker of Parliament continues to acknowledge its presence whenever he talks of opposition participation to visiting dignitaries. EPRDF’s animosity towards ONC, CUD and OFDM, the three largest opposition parties, arises from Meles’s intense fears of a multiparty system, and Meles had publicly said so in 2003. However, ONC and CUD cannot be wished away. Indeed, CUD is becoming stronger since it enjoys extensive popular support both in Ethiopia and abroad. However, diplomats in the Embassies of the US and Austria in Addis Ababa appear to forget this reality, and continue to collude with EPRDF against CUD and the great majority of the Ethiopian people.
Among the most highly orchestrated anti-CUD designs is the one that is currently actively promoted by their Excellencies, the Ambassadors of Austria, EU, and USA, using Sasahulih Kebede, Manalegn Ferrede and Ayele Chemisso, the self-appointed organizers of CUD’s elected members’ committee for Addis Ababa’s City Council; the latter three have repeatedly told Ethiopia recently that those three diplomats are pressuring them to drop their party’s name and simply take over the administration of Addis Ababa as “elected representatives” after abandoning CUD. Indeed, “ The Committee was to return forms it received from the Prime Minister’s Office through the US Embassy” [See Reporter, pro-EPRDF English weekly, February 18, 2006. p.1]. Has the US Embassy become a branch of the Prime Minister’s Office ? Why is the US Embassy so determined to be EPRDF’s accomplice in the destruction of CUD ? Surely, this diplomatic effort is not being made to enhance the development of a multiparty system; its only mission must be “… in accord with the priorities and wishes of the GFDRE…”
How can Ethiopia build a multiparty system when ambassadors of the principal democracies pressure members of a victorious party to regard their party as dead simply because the Ruling Party says so after illegally jailing its leadership and thousands of its members ? How do we ever realize free and fair elections when their Excellencies appear to show very little respect for this central pillar of liberal democracy ? Which Ruling Parties in Austria, Great Britain, or USA have forced their communities to be ruled by a group that has been forced to abandon its political leadership after the leaders of its party that has won the elections with a landslide victory have been thrown into jail by the Government ? Why does the US Embassy insist on supporting a criminal and lawless regime against CUD ? It is tragic that the US Embassy has completely forgotten, among others, the nature and purpose of multiparty elections. How can the illegal removal of a victorious party, even with US Embassy support, serve the cause of freedom and democracy which President Bush has vowed to support globally? What happened to the recently announced (2002) noble objectives of President Bush’s Millennium Challenge Account ?
On February 15, 2006, Ethiopian Television also told us about on-going negotiations between EPRDF, Dr. Beyene and Dr. Bulcha. Their immediate agenda on democratization included only Rule of Law, and it further suggested that, in due course, (i) NEBE, (ii) Public mass media, (iii) Regulations governing parliamentary operations, and (iv) Government financial support to all parties would also be discussed.
However, several important issues seem to have been ignored: There is no mention of the unconditional release of all post-election political prisoners, none on press freedom and conditions for the revival of the emasculated free press, none on the current attacks on students, teachers and opposition members and supporters, no planned discussion about the security of opposition parties and the forced closure of opposition party offices, no mention of bringing criminals to justice, no mention of a genuinely independent commission of inquiry to investigate the killings from June to the present, no mention of any independent commission to investigate the fraudulent elections of May 2005, no concern for the privatization of electronic mass media, no plans to discuss the independence of the judiciary from the Executive branch, no concern for the neutrality and independence of Police and National Defense Forces, no concern for the fate of ONC and not even the accusations leveled at OFDM, and no mention of handing over Addis Ababa to the party that has had a landslide victory. It is all tragic !
It is sad that Drs. Beyene and Bulcha have chosen to completely ignore the wishes of the Ethiopian people and play into the hands of EPRDF to serve as its tools, and jeopardize even their own parties’ future, impede the development of a multiparty system, ignore all past and present suffering of thousands of Ethiopians, ignore the basic issues underlying the elections of May 2005, and miss a golden opportunity for enhancing democratization. What is also equally sad is that the Beyene-Bulcha group, which has only 24 out of 172 opposition seats in Parliament, does not want CUD members to sit with it in the on-going negotiations[ See Reporter, Pro-EPRDF English weekly, February 18, 2006]. That perfectly suits Prime Minister Meles’s divide-and-rule policy. Our divided, self-centered, short-sighted and sectarian elite is, once again, an accomplice in mercilessly bleeding Ethiopia !
There is very little to expect from the Beyene-Bulcha-EPRDF negotiations. Dr. Beyene is negotiating with EPRDF for the second time, his first being in connection with the electoral law in 2004 when Dr. Beyene had met Prime Minister Meles with apparently very little preparation. Asked about the negotiations after that meeting, he told the pro-EPRDF Reporter [ See Reporter, Interview. 02/04/2004] that the NEBE chairmanship was not to be negotiated since it was provided for in the Constitution, [Electoral Proclamation 111/1995 provides for the selection of the Board Chairman], thereby demonstrating how little he had prepared for such serious negotiations and how much he knew the Constitution after carrying it around for 10 solid years as a member of the Meles-driven Parliament.
The negotiations are doomed to fail for these reasons: (1) EPRDF has excluded all important stakeholders, including ONC and CUD, which, together, hold over 86% of opposition seats in parliament, (2) EPRDF has avoided several issues that are central to democratization, (3) EPRDF wants only to appear willing to negotiate with the opposition so as to cheat donors into restarting the in-flow of foreign aid, when it is actually determined to defend dictatorship with tanks , (4) Just like EPRDF, the US Embassy, EPRDF’s principal backer and partner, is also determined to assist EPRDF “… in accord with the priorities and wishes of the GFDRE..” ( See USAID/Ethiopia’s Integrated Strategic Plan: FY 2001-2006, p. 94), (5) EPRDF negotiates with separate groups so as to make separate deals with each, and avoid any overall agreement with its divide-and-rule tactics, and (6) The separate negotiators lack skills and knowledge, as demonstrated in their handling of the negotiations on the electoral law in 2004.
Dr. Beyene’s and Dr. Bulcha’s participation in the negotiations, in the absence of ONC, CUD and others, is a betrayal of the people. This betrayal is designed, again with US Embassy support, to make private deals with EPRDF, to legitimize EPRDF’s criminal acts against ONC, CUD and their supporters, and to assist EPRDF to keep CUD’s leaders behind bars with the hope of killing CUD altogether. Both senior leaders need to realize that they are also helping to prolong suffering and tension in the Country.
Ominous clouds of civil war are already here, but they can be stopped from spreading if there is unity in the opposition, and if donors’ keep their development dollars. There is very grave danger if America’s 600 million Dollars or the World Bank’s 250 million Dollars continue to go to the Dictator; it will also be sustaining dictatorship if these and similar funds are given through local UN agencies or to the “wereda administrations” that are all totally controlled by Meles Zenawi. It does not require any research to know that Meles dictates to all administrations/organizations in spite of the façade of federalism.
That Ethiopia’s poor will suffer if development aid is stopped is not true. They have not gained from the last 14 years of development aid. Those that gained under EPRDF are the ruling elite, their close associates, their businesses, and rent-seekers. The best precaution against any pain due to stopping development aid is for all to work in concert for a speedy change. The poor will not benefit from aid as long as the Government is not accountable. That was why the voter turn-out last May was huge; voters had hoped to freely choose a party to govern them, but to be dismissed in free and fair elections in 2010 if it failed to serve them. All that huge sacrifice since May 2005 has been to realize these sovereign rights.
Ethiopia’s democrats are grateful to EU’s parliament for its firm and unwavering support; America’s recent official pronouncements at the end of January 2006 and on February 1, 2006 at the US Department of State are greatly appreciated, but we are all awaiting further concrete action; Chris Smith’s HR-4423 draft is a most welcome development that is befitting a democratic super-power, and the final outcome is also very eagerly awaited by all peace-loving and democratic Ethiopians; the support pouring from several world capitals is a vital contribution for peace and democracy in Ethiopia. However, the primary responsibility for turning the tide against Meles’s fascism belongs to Ethiopians a home and abroad.
Development aid and loans recently promised by the US and the World Bank will support dictatorship and increasingly drive Ethiopians into despair, and that may easily lead to sudden and uncontrollable developments. Supporting Meles will push Ethiopia into civil war ! US interest in the Horn of Africa is guaranteed only by a democratic government.
The only way to save the sub-region from further chaos is for America and the World Bank to join hands with EU’s Parliament and Ethiopian democrats today to address all concerns regarding election-related crimes, including the unconditional release of all CUD and other election-related prisoners, and to help speed up negotiations for democratization so as to create credible democratic institutions. Then, a peaceful, democratic and terror-free Ethiopia will be born and become a reliable partner in the Horn of Africa. US calls for justice, when it is known to be impossible and meaningless, is as good as giving support for continued dictatorship and lawlessness.
