From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Apr 21 2010 - 06:42:30 EDT
ETHIOPIA-Another "landslide victory" for the ruling minority clique
Sophia Tesfamariam
http://www.americanchronicle.com/img/galleries/1337/0/200_Ethiopian_protests
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"… If voting made any difference it would be outlawed…"-Emma Goldman
21/04/2010
In a few weeks, on 23 May 2010, Ethiopians will be going to the polls hoping
that, this time, the minority regime led by the Horn menace Meles Zenawi
will respect their wishes and not steal their votes. Unfortunately, the odds
are stacked up against the people of Ethiopia and they will once again be
disappointed. Considering the pre-elections actions taken by the minority
regime and its partners, the outcome is not hard to predict: the minority
regime will run unchallenged, and will win 99.9% of the votes in Ethiopia´s
2010 elections. "The ruling party, EPRDF has won both the by-election of the
House of Peoples Representatives and local election in a landslide victory",
is what Meles Zenawi´s hand picked National Electoral Board of Ethiopia
(NEBE) will announce on 21 June 2010.
It should be recalled that after Meles Zenawi´s regime stole the 2005
elections, spontaneous protests broke out across the country. The minority
regime and its security forces chose to respond with violence and force.
Over 200 innocent Ethiopians were gunned down in cold blood and over 40,000
were detained for voting the regime out of office. Having been warned of
avoiding a repeat of the 2005 post elections violence by its handlers, the
regime in Ethiopia has decided to take actions ahead of the elections. Upon
the advice of his handlers, he has taken all actions to "clear the deck" and
prevent any real challenge to his rule and most of all, avoid a repeat of
the deadly and very embarrassing violence and massacres that unfolded
following the "flawed 2005 elections".
In preparation for the 23 May 2010 Ethiopian elections, the lawless regime,
Washington´s "staunch ally" in the Horn of Africa region, has engineered the
2010 election outcome through institutional means in an attempt to give it
an imprimatur of legitimacy. In addition to the harassments, intimidations
and murder of potential candidates and opposition supporters, the regime has
instituted laws to muzzle critics, the media and even elections monitors and
observers.
The minority regime and the hand picked National Election Board of Ethiopia,
and the Ambassadors of the Ethiopian Partners Group, "brokered" the various
"Code of Conducts" that are part of the regime´s scheme to rig the 2010
elections. The EPG must know that elections can be rigged, not just by
miscounting votes, stealing and destroying ballots, but also by unfair
administration of the electoral laws. Without an independent judiciary and
an independent Election Board the people of Ethiopia have no recourse and
are essentially being told to accept the outcome and shut up, go home, and
consider themselves lucky to have been participants in the election, and
lived to tell about it.
The regime and its handlers have come up with three documents-Code of
conduct for Observers, Code of conduct for the press and a Code of conduct
for political parties. The objective is quite clear. It is Meles Zenawi´s
way of using the law to silence his critics, prevent substantive discussions
on Ethiopia´s economic, social and political issues and deprive the
Ethiopian people and their representatives a voice in the upcoming
elections. It is the minority regime´s 2010 instruments designed to
criminalize dissent. Of course if that doesn´t work, there is lethal arsenal
ready to be used upon his orders.
Considered by the State Department to be a "front-line state" in the war on
terrorism, Ethiopia´s counterterrorism cooperation with the United States
has yielded an increase in U.S. military assistance and arms sales since
Sept. 11, 2001. Humvee military vehicles sold to Ethiopia by the United
States for counterterrorism operations were used by the government to fire
on civilian protestors during the riots that followed the May elections and
during which 200 people were killed.
Seeking to avoid the messy ballot-stuffing often associated with the rigged
2005 elections, the minority regime has refined its tactics. The opposition
has been neutralized, sidelined and weakened. Meles has kept potential
opponents at bay by imprisoning, exiling and even killing them. Even
candidates from his home region of Tigray are not spared. For instance,
Aregawi Gebreyohannes, a Tigrayan candidate for parliament was stabbed to
death by intruders in his home. Another Tigrayan candidate was badly beaten
by armed men in another part of the northern Ethiopian region. Both men had
recently been arrested in connection with their political activities.
Woizero Birtukan Medeska, president of the Unity for Democracy and Justice
Party went from being an ordinary judge to becoming one of Meles Zenawi´s
famous political prisoners. Judging from the statements made by Ethiopian
women at a recent demonstration held by Ethiopians in Washington, DC,
Medeska remains a symbol of the Ethiopian peoples struggle for democracy and
justice. Meles Zenawi who is determined to keep his nemesis off the
political stage and out of the 2010 elections ordered the re-arrest of
opposition leader in 2008 and she has been sentenced to life in prison.
Five prominent opposition political activists were also sentenced to death.
High officials of the OLF party were accused of trying to "overthrow the
government" and for attempted secession (legal under Article 19 of the
Ethiopian Constitution). The accused included several prominent Oromo
businessmen and politicians. Amongst the accused is Bekele Jirata, General
Secretary of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM). According to
statements attributed to Asfaw Angatu, an MP from the opposition Oromo
People´s Congress (OPC), 18 OPC members preparing for the elections were
arrested. Prominent opposition leaders such as Berhanu Nega have been forced
to remain in exile, sentenced to death in absentia by the regime´s kangaroo
courts.
The minority regime also has a new "anti-terrorism law". The law provides
broad powers to the police, and harsh criminal penalties can be applied to
political protesters and others who engage in acts of nonviolent political
dissent. Some of its provisions appear tailored less toward addressing
terrorism and more toward allowing for a heavy-handed response to mass
public unrest, like that which followed Ethiopia's 2005 elections.
Ethiopia's new anti-terror law contains provisions that will impact the
media by making journalists and editors potential accomplices in acts of
terrorism if they publish statements seen as encouraging or supporting
political protests.
Professor Beyene Petros, deputy chairman of organizational affairs at the
Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia (FDDE), a coalition of eight
opposition bodies said:
"…When elections approach, the government activates different strategies to
incriminate our candidates, to discourage them from running in the
elections…Twenty-four of our potential candidates are facing various forms
of harassment, including imprisonment…"-
For his part, Merera Gudina, leader of a party representing the Oromo
people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group said:
"…The EPRDF is trying to be both the referee and a player. If you are both
the referee and a player, who is going to win is clear from the beginning…"-
The minority regime has resorted to blackmail, lies and rumors to embarrass
and isolate popular candidates. Lidetu Ayalew, leader of the Ethiopian
Democratic Party, accused the minority regime´s officials in his devoutly
Christian district of trying to discredit him by spreading false rumors he
had converted to another religion. There are credible reports about
potential voters in other villages and towns being intimidated and
blackmailed. Ethiopian children are deprived schooling, farmers are denied
fertilizer and seeds, and peasant families are denied food aid for backing
the opposition.
Voice of America on 8 April 2010 in its post "Silence Not Golden in
Ethiopia" said:
"…Following the jamming of the Voice of America's radio broadcasts in
Ethiopia's dominant Amharic language for the last four weeks, the government
there appears to now have turned its attention to VOA's Internet service in
the East African nation. Numerous reports have been received that VOA's
website is unavailable inside Ethiopia, where individuals both inside and
out of Africa often turn when they cannot get a radio signal…While a friend
and supporter of Ethiopia, the United States nevertheless cannot remain
silent on such actions and censorship, which run counter to the country's
constitution. It is watching with great interest and encourages all parties
there to act responsibly during the election campaign. An election cannot be
run under the guise of democratic process if all candidates cannot
participate freely and state their case or if political news is suppressed…"
As the Amharic saying goes…ina min yiTebes?
What is it that VoA expects from the poor Ethiopian people? What can they do
when they have been boxed in the corner by Meles Zenawi´s rules,
regulations, codes of conduct, not to mention the armored vehicles, tanks,
humvees and other deadly instruments that have been given to him by his
handlers to subdue, intimidate and kill them? VoA must know that in
Ethiopia, with the help of Meles Zenawi´s handlers, the 2010 elections, like
the three previous ones, will "run under the guise of democratic process"
despite the fact that all the "candidates cannot participate freely and
state their case" and the "news is suppressed". VoA must know that the
minority regime that depends on donors for over 70% of its national budget
does not have the financial or any other capacity to carry out these
expensive and excessive activities on its own.
VoA must know that it is foreign governments, such as the United States and
the United Kingdom, that have colluded in eroding civil liberties and
democracy in Ethiopia. They have chosen to appease Meles Zenawi as he
committed genocides in Gambela, Ogaden and Oromia regions of Ethiopia,
invaded and occupied and made excuses for Meles Zenawi´s reign of terror, as
he served their interests in the region. Donors have knowingly let Meles
Zenawi´s thugocracy use donor funds (which are fungible) to commit genocides
and other international crimes against the people of Ethiopia.
Who is providing Meles Zenawi´s genocidal mercenary regime with the
diplomatic, financial, political and military shield and support it needs to
carry out the international crimes against the people of Ethiopia, to
violate international law and the UN and African Charters, to military
occupy sovereign Eritrean territories, including Badme? Who is shielding the
regime from being punished for its violation of Somalia´s sovereignty and
territorial integrity and the massacre of over 20,000 innocent Somalis and
the displacement of over 3.5 million during its two year long aggressive war
of invasion and occupation? Who is diverting attention away from the
minority regime´s crimes committed in Somalia and elsewhere in the region?
Certainly, it is not the Ethiopian people.
Allow me to share an excerpt from Michael Klare and Cynthia Arnson´s well
researched 1981 paper "Supplying Repression", published by the Institute for
Policy Studies. Klare and Arnson wrote:
"…U.S. firms and agencies are providing guns, equipment, training, and
technical support to the police and paramilitary forces most directly
involved in the torture, assassination, and abuse of civilian
dissidents…Rather than sitting in detached judgment over incidents of abuse
occurring elsewhere the United States stands at the supply end of a pipeline
of repressive technology that extends to many of the world's most
authoritarian regimes…The US is the world's leading supplier of police and
prison hardware, the leader in "what can best be called the international
repression trade," supplying many of the worst human rights violators…"
VoA must know that it is the US trained and supplied military and police
that are charged with imposing "order and stability" and it is the United
States that gives Ethiopia over 1 billion dollars in aid every year. So why
cry foul now and feign concern for the people of Ethiopia? VoA is barking up
the wrong tree. If US officials choose to look the other way and make
excuses for the lawless regime, what is it that the Ethiopian people can do?
When the minority regime announced that it was going to jam the Voice of
America´s (VoA) Amharic service program, Johnnie Carson, the US Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs downplayed the regime´s threats.
Meles Zenawi said that the VoA was "engaging in destabilizing propaganda,"
and shamelessly compared it to Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines,
the Rwandan station whose inflammatory broadcasts helped stoke the 1994
genocide. It wasn´t the jamming that bothered Carson; it was the comparison
to Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines that was "distressing". There
are members of the Ethiopian opposition who believe the jamming of the VoA
and the consequent US-Ethiopian row are no more than a staged drama. Judging
from Carson´s comments, they may be right.
The people of Ethiopia are suffering and desperately want change, but the
2010 elections will not bring them the change they need, or can believe
in…Just more of the same. More lies, more deceptions, more hunger, more
pain, more suffering etc. etc. Under Meles Zenawi´s brutal genocidal
minority regime, despite the massive and continuous food, financial, and
military aid provided by its handlers, the people of Ethiopia are hungry,
malnourished and sick. The actual purchasing power of the Ethiopian worker
has been declining for the last 18 years and despite the professed
"impressive GDP growth rates" (11% according to Meles Zenawi and his
handlers):
§ About 40 % of the population lives below the international poverty line of
$1.25 per day.
§ The United Nations Development Program places Ethiopia´s Human Development
Index (HDI) at 0.414, which gives the country a rank of 171st out of 182
countries.
§ According to UNICEF, preventable diseases and malnutrition kill 500000
Ethiopian children every year.
§ 49% of the population is undernourished.
§ In 2009, the World Food Program (WFP) assisted almost ten million people
in Ethiopia.
The 2010 Ethiopian elections, instead of being a step toward restoring
democracy in Ethiopia, will have the exact opposite effect.
In the international arena, there will be no punitive actions taken against
the mercenary leader for his regime´s numerous violations of international
law and the international crimes he is committing, or for the "undemocratic"
actions in Ethiopia, and Meles Zenawi knows that. There will be a lot of
talk, but no actions. When it is all said and done, there will be statements
from his handlers, rebuking the "opposition" and calls will be made to "join
the parliament" and work for changes from within, and of course the US and
its allies will hail Ethiopia´s "free and fair" elections and the spread of
"democratization" of Africa.
Johnnie Carson and his team at the Bureau of African Affairs will keep
repeating US policy for the Horn of Africa and extol profound concern for
"human rights", "the raising of the living standards", "development" and
"democratization" of Africa etc. etc. but what happens on the ground (by
design), will be the exact opposite.. The regime´s million dollar lobbyists
and unscrupulous lawmakers with business and other interests in Ethiopia,
his skirted friends at the Pentagon, UN and the Bureau of African Affairs
will all work to ensure the diplomatic, financial, political and military
shield and support for the genocidal, flip flopping, mercenary minority
regime in Ethiopia will remain unchanged. According to a Reuters, Meles
Zenawi´s dominance is bolstered by a general sense that the West "would be
comfortable with Meles staying on - as long as he remains a loyal ally in
the volatile Horn of Africa and liberalises his potentially huge economy."
For his part, like his predecessors, the mercenary, street smart Prime
Minister of Ethiopia wrongly believes that his foreign trained and equipped
security apparatus will make his minority regime the only decisive political
force in Ethiopia..forever.
Meles Zenawi ought to know better and learn from history.
The rule of law will prevail over the law of the jungle!
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