Jungle law continues to haunt Ethiopia, says human rights activist By Our Staff Writer: March 5, 2005

“The government has placed itself above the law, rules the country by force, and exonerates itself from any crimes it commits against defenseless citizens. This makes up the saddest reality prevailing in present-day Ethiopia,” Professor Mesfin said.

Speaking at a panel discussion on “The supremacy of law and human rights,” Prof. Mesfin said there was no occasion when individuals and organizations that committed gross human rights crimes were taken to court because they were carrying out the crimes under the aegis of the ruling party.

The anguish of Ethiopians deported from Eritrea about 14 years ago, and their cry for so long from their life in utter squalor and pestilence, continues to be met with the cruel indifference of the regime in power. Under the cover of modernizing the city, the government bulldozes the homes of poor families, who are rounded up in the wee hours of the night, dragged to the wilderness, and dumped to the vagaries of predators, the 72-year-old former university professor told the audience.

Democracy would only thrive if the government picks up lessons from practices, adheres to the supremacy of law and the respect of human rights. But the guiding principles of the government of Meles Zenawi were based on a jungle law, and the chance to change itself for the better remains remote despite the passage of 14 years in power, he added.

“As elections were rigged in the past,” Prof. Mesfin said, “there are ample evidences the next elections would be no different.”

Founding father of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) who was imprisoned for months before an international outcry forced his release, Prof. Mesfin also aired with a great sense of sadness the systematic weakening and eventual destruction of pillars of the Ethiopian civil society.

He said the regime dissolved the City Council of Addis Ababa and replaced it by its cadres. The Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), the Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA), Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Union (CETU) were demolished under the powers of the ruling party, and replaced by the government’s surrogate groups.

The gross human rights violations in Ethiopia, however, have not failed to attract the attention of foreign observers.

The Meles Zenawi regime, whose public image is one of masked Eritrean agents who used the former rebel group TPLF as their Trojan horse to seizing power in Ethiopia while crowning the secessionist Eritrean province with Ethiopia’s undisputed Red Sea littoral, on Thursday reacted angrily to the US department’s annual report.

Meanwhile, in a document released to Ethiomedia and published on our website today, the Ethiopian opposition Keste Demena confirmed a long-standing fear that the ruling party would resort to illegal activities to pre-determine the outcome of the election in its favor. Keste Demena and All Ethiopian Unity Party released documents showing cadres of the ruling party of Meles Zenawi deployed as non-partisan “election workers.”

What can opposition parties do to save themselves from being pawns in a well-orchestrated drama of Mr Meles Zenawi and his army of hired functionaries? That is the question awaiting an immediate response.