Blair hugs Meles – ETV style!

EthioMedia

February 14, 2006

Blair, sitting next to Ethiopia’s leader, spoke of the country’s need to settle its problems (Photo: BBC)

ADDIS ABABA – In South Africa where the Summit of “Progressive Governments” was held, the BBC reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair had an unfortunate encounter with one of his failures – Ethiopia’s prime minister Meles Zenawi.

Anyone who watched a BBC video clip would also seek no further justification how the tyrant shamelessly curled up in his chair as though to tacitly inform Mr. Blair that he was really sorry for turning Ethiopia into a police state, and was eager to learn from his “mistakes” provided the British prime minister pardoned him.

The irony is the Meles-owned Ethiopian Television (ETV) in Addis Ababa turned the fact up side down and reported in local languages that Tony Blair had acknowledged the elections were free and fair. To back up the claim, an old TV footage was used, showing Tony Blair giving a bear hug to Meles, in power since 1991 through sheer ruthlessness. The TV also reported Britain promising more financial aid to Ethiopia. One observer said: “Meles has been using two tools to subjugate this country for too long: misnformation and outright brutality. Those who have access to the Internet are able to prove the fallacy of the state-owned Ethiopian TV report. But the question is how many Ethiopians have access to the Internet?”

Blair turns his back on friend who failed him

TONY BLAIR came face to face on Sunday with one of his handpicked new breed of African leaders — and promptly turned his back.
To both men’s evident distaste, Mr Blair found himself seated next to Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, at the final press conference of a weekend summit of “progressive” world leaders.

Britain suspended £70 million of direct budget support to Ethiopia two weeks ago in protest at the Ethiopian Government’s crackdown on protesters angered by the results of general elections last May. Scores of unarmed demonstrators, mainly students, were shot dead in June and November in the capital, Addis Ababa. Thousands of political opponents, including children, have been detained without charges being brought against them.

The events were deeply embarrassing to Mr Blair, who had named the Ethiopian leader as one of the key members of his Commission for Africa. Last year, Mr Blair toured Ethiopia and heaped praise on Mr Meles’s democratic and economic policies. Then, he spoke enthusiastically of a new breed of African leader, worthy of much greater foreign support; an issue he personally championed at the G8 summit in Gleneagles last summer.

Now, with a stony-faced Mr Meles alongside, Mr Blair, on his first visit to Africa since the G8, used very different language. He told reporters that although the elections had been the freest in Ethiopia’s history, the Government had “overreacted” to the ensuing protests. He dodged questions, however, as to Mr Meles’s suitability to attend a “progressive governance” summit along with leaders from Brazil, South Africa, Sweden, South Korea and New Zealand.

“This is not a question of a government stealing an election to try to hang on to power, it is the government reaction to the reaction to the result that we consider — if I may be undiplomatic — to be an overreaction,” he said. Mr Blair said that the decision to freeze aid would not affect British support to Ethiopia’s millions of near-destitute people through non-governmental groups and UN agencies. Ethiopia maintains much of the money will now be wasted on those organisations’ own bureaucracies.

Mr Meles, who now barely talks to his former mentor, replied that the British Government was entitled to do what it wanted with its “own and British taxpayers’ money”. On previous occasions, Mr Meles has lambasted the British Government for withdrawing budgetary support previously agreed.

Behind the icy diplomatic exchange, however, the body language told a different story. Whereas the other leaders’ chairs were placed in such a way that they almost rubbed shoulders, a large gap opened up behind the place names of the UK and Ethiopia.

The leaders agreed on the need to solve world trade disputes, but were unable to find the best way forward, settling for a statement agreeing on the importance of such talks for developing nations.

Afterwards, Mr Blair warmly shook the hands of Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Göran Persson from Sweden, hugged Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and kissed Helen Clark from New Zealand.

All contact with Mr Meles, though, was avoided.

(Jonathan Clayton in Hammanskraal, South Africa for the Times)