From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Apr 11 2009 - 18:41:22 EDT
With a Friend Like This
Ethiopia was supposed to help America in the war on terror. But it's only
made matters worse.
By Jonathan Tepperman | NEWSWEEK
Published Apr 12, 2009
>From the magazine issue dated Apr 20, 2009
Few people outside Ethiopia have ever heard of Birtukan Mideksa. And that's
just how the government wants it. Since December, Birtukan has been kept in
solitary confinement, one of hundreds of political prisoners there. Her
apparent crime? Organizing a democratic challenge to the increasingly
iron-fisted rule of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
In the past year alone, Meles's ruling party has rigged elections,
effectively banned independent human-rights groups, passed a draconian press
law and shrugged off calls for an investigation into alleged atrocities in
the restive Ogaden region. Yet in the same period, his country has become
one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid in sub-Saharan Africa, getting a
cool $1 billion in 2008. The Bush administration claimed that Ethiopia was
the linch-pin of its regional counterterrorism strategy and a vital beacon
of stability. But the evidence increasingly suggests Washington isn't
getting what it pays for, and is supporting a brutal dictator in the
process. Candidate Obama pledged to strengthen democracy in Africa; if he's
serious, this is a good place to start.
America's warm relations with Ethiopia date to the days after 9/11, when the
country's Christian-dominated government came to be seen as a natural U.S.
ally in a region targeted by Islamic extremists. After disputed elections in
2005, however, Meles-once hailed by President Bill Clinton as part of a
promising "new generation" of African leaders-began clamping down on
dissent.
Yet Washington tolerated his lapses because it needed his help fighting
Qaeda-linked Islamists in next-door Somalia. In December 2006, Ethiopia's
U.S.-trained Army duly invaded its neighbor, ousting the radical Islamic
Courts Union government there. But the adventure hasn't worked out as
planned. No sooner had the ICU been toppled than an even more radical group,
Al-Shabab, sprang up to fight the invaders. And although Seyoum Mesfin,
Ethiopia's foreign minister, recently told NEWSWEEK that the Islamists have
been militarily "shattered," they now control much of the country's south
and have tightened links with Al Qaeda. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian troops have
pulled out, and the country they left behind has been thoroughly devastated.
Two years of fighting forced about 3.4 million Somalis, some 40 percent of
the population, from their homes. Yet only a few high-ranking terrorists
were eliminated, and Russell Howard, a retired general and senior fellow at
the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations University, says the occupation only
"empowered" the radicals.
Such failures-and Ethiopia's growing repression-suggest Washington should
rethink the relationship. Just what Ethiopia offers the United States today
is unclear. Addis Ababa has contributed troops to U.N. peacekeeping forces
in Darfur and Burundi and plays a large role in shaping the policies of the
African Union. But this shouldn't earn it unquestioning U.S. support.
To reset ties, the United States should push Ethiopia to democratize. And it
must urge it to reconcile with its archnemesis, Eritrea. Resolving the
conflict between the two states is key to addressing a whole range of
threats to U.S. interests. Tiny Eritrea won independence from Addis Ababa in
1993, but the two countries fought a 1998-2000 border war and relations have
remained hostile ever since, in part because Ethiopia, with tacit U.S.
support, has ignored an international ruling that redrew their border. Too
weak to challenge Ethiopia directly, Eritrea has funneled support to its
enemy's enemies-including Al-Shabab and its America-hating foreign fighters.
Eritrea also recently instigated a border conflict with Djibouti, home to an
important U.S. military base.
Washington should thus push Ethiopia and Eritrea to make amends; better
relations would mean an end to their proxy war in Somalia, which has helped
turn that state into a Qaeda haven. Should it choose to use it, the United
States has plenty of leverage. Most U.S. spending on Ethiopia goes for
health and food aid, which aren't easy to cut. But the Obama administration
could make military aid and weapons sales contingent on Meles's improving
his behavior. The House of Representatives passed a bill in 2007 to do just
that, but the measure died in the Senate without White House support.
Much will now depend on the man Obama has nominated for the State
Department's top Africa job, Johnnie Carson. Carson's record is promising:
while ambassador to Kenya from 1999 to 2003, he helped persuade longtime
President Daniel Arap Moi to step down, clearing the way for multiparty
elections. Should he bring similar pressure to bear on Washington's new
African ally, Birtukan, Ethiopia's other political prisoners, Africans
throughout the Horn and America itself would all benefit.
With Jason Mclure in Addis Ababa
C 2009
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