For those who followed the Ethiopian politics and history, Meles Zenawi’s betrayal is not very surprising. Betrayal goes in his family’s blood. His father was one of the main actors that facilitated the rule of Italian colonialists in Northern Ethiopia and was called a “banda”, a derogatory term given to people who willingly help to promote colonialism in Ethiopia. What the father started in a small northern Ethiopian town, the son topped it by betraying an entire continent on the international stage.
The Road to Copenhagen
It is rumored that Zenawi begged and pleaded to African diplomats to represent Africa with the G20 and also to be the chief negotiator during world climate conference. Zenawi backed his begging by talking tough and using words like we “will walk out” if industrialized nations do not support Africa’s demand and we will “challenge” them into which most unsuspecting African countries bought into. Some suggest Zenawi was put to this task, from behind the scene, by top European diplomats, especially France, Germany and England in Addis Abeba. In return these diplomats worked hard to frustrate Ethiopian opposition parties during the negotiations for the upcoming 2010 election rules. From the beginning Zenawi has no regard for public opinion in his own country. His concern is to impress his Western backers so that the legitimacy of his dictatorial rule is not questioned on the international stage.
Why is Zenawi Running Scared?
During his nearly two-decade dictatorial rule of Ethiopia, Zenawi committed a myriad of crimes against the Ethiopian people and beyond. Some of the major crimes include:
The Genocide of the Anuak people of Ethiopia
The Genocidal campaign against the people of Ogaden in Eastern Ethiopia
The ethnic cleansing of Amharas in different parts of Ethiopia
The massacre and imprisonment of hundreds and thousands of the Oromo people of Ethiopia
The genocidal invasion in Somalia
The massacre of hundreds of people in Addis Abeba and elsewhere in the country during the 2005 rigged election
The continued repression against free media in Ethiopia
The financial plundering of Ethiopia
The hundreds and thousands of political prisoners still languishing in prisons throughout Ethiopia
All these atrocities did not pass without notice by his Western allies. Westerners know Mugabe of Zimbabwe is a saint compared to Zenawi (But poor Mugabe annoyed the West by taking away the land that rightfully belongs to the people of Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, African leaders like Zenawi continued to support Western claims that Mugabe is a sinister leader and has to be eliminated by all means). The West brings out Zenawi’s crimes when they want to corner Zenawi into performing their dirty tricks on Africa.
African countries by and large remained indifferent to Zenawi’s complex nature. In fact some African countries considered him a genuine leader and praised him for his efforts to champion the African cause. Little did they know what a double crosser Zenawi is?
What does Zenawi want?
Meles Zenawi is a leader of a fascist organization called Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF). As customary to all fascists, Zenawi brought a system of party discipline whereby the leader of the organization is worshipped no matter how distorted his leadership and world views are. In this organization, dissent is unthinkable. This is evident as demonstrated by his followers that continue to blindly worship this man for the last several decades. One can simply explore the Aiga Forum website to learn to what great length members of this fascist organization go to convince the unsuspecting members that Zenawi is a God sent for Africa in general and for Ethiopia in particular. If dissent is felt by the higher echelon of this party, it is immediately extinguished. The elimination of dissenters has no limits. Even family members and close allies can be victims of the elimination machine that is Zenawi’s private army known as Agazi. The espionage on suspected members is facilitated by highly sophisticated espionage equipment.
Zenawi knows that all fascists have their days but also knows he has to come to justice in the end. All Zenawi wants is to extend his stay in power and continue to plunder Ethiopia and now Africa. He hopes to dismember Ethiopia when he runs out of tricks so that no one nation has the legal right or ability to pursue and bring him to justice from whereever he is planning to hide. At this point we do not know where his planned refuge will be. All we know is he has turned himself from rugs to riches that he is reportedly the 11th richest leader in the world. Zenawi hopes his Western backers will protect him in time of his need. It seems the cunning little man is not so wise after all. It is a well known fact when push comes to shove, the same Western backers will be his prime pursuers. He cannot out-fox the West; they have refined the art of trickery for centuries unlike his decades long adventure into the business of political trickery. The prime example of Western trickery was played out in front of our eyes during the last two weeks.
Zenawi’s administration record of human rights and justice came to the forefront at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva just days before the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. During the Human Rights proceedings, Zenawi was accused of gross violation of Human Rights and that his Ethnic party that represents only 6% of the Ethiopian population, holds virtually all state apparatus especially evident in the army where almost hundred percent of the army generals come from his ethnic group. Zenawi reacted to the accusation by calling the American diplomat an idiot.
We now know how Zenawi dared to call diplomats idiots. All along, it seems he was promised that nothing will happen to him as long as he works for the interest of the West. As a pay back, Zenawi announced Africa has agreed to the proposal put forward by the West even before he arrived in Copenhagen where the real negotiation on Climate Change was going on. He managed to divide the G-77 camp. He played the tune written by the West forcing some negotiators to wonder what Zenawi got in return.
Lessons Learned and Course of Action for Opposition Groups
As it is said, God works in mysterious ways and for the faithful everything works for the good. This is a great opportunity for opposition parties to expose the nature of Zenawi to African leaders who, until now, remained indifferent. So far the bulk of the opposition was targeting Western audiences and focused on exposing the atrocities of Zenawi to the developed world. As proved historically, this audience is not responsive to matters of repression in developing countries. If anything they support repression. Until now, the opposition has ignored any political work with African leaders.
The time has come for us to focus our attention back on Africa. We have to present our case with evidence to influential African leaders and African NGOs. We have to approach African community associations here in the West and form alliances to form a huge voting block that will become a formidable force for any politician to ignore. United we stand, divided we fall. I earnestly beg parties like UDJ, Ginbot 7 and others to focus our diplomatic effort to Africa where we can try to alienate Zenawi and warn them of the dangers of associating with Zenawi and how he is untrustworthy.
