Ethiopia's million dollar makeover: Comparing Eritrea's and Ethiopia's leadership
By: Rahwa Tesfay
October 26, 2005

A dangerous precedent has begun entirely funded and fueled by major powers in the West to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into otherwise bankrupt and notoriously corrupt regimes to give them the appearance of vitality and development, in other words giving them artificial political facelifts. Our case in point is the International Community's obscene financing of the minority TPLF-led regime in Ethiopia and the blind eye it turns to this government's continued sabotage of the political landscape in Ethiopia and the Horn region and its unabated abuse of the Ethiopian people.  In order to give this multi-million dollar fabricated image of Meles and his regime some validity, Eritrea and its leadership have once again been employed as the International Community's sacrificial lamb.

Luckily for all observers, Meles and his cronies continue to forget their Western scripted lines and fumble time and again exposing their moral and political bankruptcy.  In the meantime, however, to save the crumbling TPLF regime, many of Meles & Co.'s paid advocates and lobbyists have begun to churn out the media hype to go with Ethiopia's million dollar makeover. Some of the known and unknown culprits waging Meles' media campaign include the newly emerged Anthony Mitchell of the Associated Press, Meles' personal henchman and former CIA agent, the 83-year-old Paul Henze, the recently appointed and resident advisor to the Tigrayan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patrick Gilkes, the BBC's dishonest editor for Africa and Gilkes' partner in crime, Martin Plaut, the scandal-ridden Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, and Tony Blair among others.   

A major part of this million dollar makeover is to prop Meles up to appear as something which he is not and conversely to present Eritrea's President and leadership in a negative light.  However, it is high time this whole campaign and Meles' concocted image were deconstructed and exposed for what they are, a fraud.  Here are some of the facts.

Meles has defied international law and UN Security Council resolutions; rejected the final and binding EEBC decision and refuses to demarcate the border without preconditions.  President Isaias of Eritrea has accepted the decision from the beginning and has been ready to implement the border decision without delay according to the Algiers Agreement and in compliance with the rule of law. 

Meles has backtracked on his commitment.  Within months, Meles withdrew Ethiopia's acceptance of the EEBC decision and has since presented a litany of excuses and used various diplomatic games to prevent demarcation from taking place.  President Isaias of Eritrea has remained straightforward and consistent and upheld his government's acceptance of the EEBC decision despite any dissatisfaction the Eritrean government and people had with the decision.

Meles has occupied sovereign Eritrean territories and beat the drums of war for the last three years.  Reported by both the UN Security Council and the EEBC, Meles has sent civilian populations and military troops to occupy sovereign Eritrean territories along the border.  He has openly sent reinforcements to the border in the tens of thousands and continuously threatens to occupy fully Eritrea and overthrow the government, a belligerent stand which was shamelessly reported in former President Carter's 2005 report on "Ethiopian elections."

While sovereign Eritrean territories have been illegally and forcibly occupied by Meles' army for the last three years under the watchful and consenting eye of the International Community, President Isaias has exhibited maximum patience for the sake of regional peace and security.  

Meles and his security forces have repeatedly massacred people in the streets.  In addition to the June 2005 massacres of more than 40 Ethiopians in the streets of Addis Ababa, Meles has used his security forces against peaceful demonstrators throughout the country.  The attacks on university students in Addis Ababa and innocent civilians in Awassa are just two examples.  Consistent with his policy of ethnic division, Meles' security forces also committed genocide against the Anuak people in Gambella.  Never in Eritrea have the security forces been ordered to or taken part in massacres or genocides against the Eritrean people. 

Meles has rigged and stolen a national election.  Numerous reports and first hand accounts of intimidation, abductions and killings of non-TPLF/ EPRDF candidates and supporters and vote rigging have eliminated any basis to call Ethiopia's last election "free and fair."  Though elections have not yet taken place in Eritrea at the national level, elections that were held at the local and regional levels in all parts of the country in 2004 were marked with complete openness and transparency and not once was there an incident of violence, abuse, vote rigging or any other manipulation of the elections.

Meles has lost control of the country and declared a state of emergency.  Creating a complete police state and removing any right from the Ethiopian people for peaceful demonstration, Meles declared a state of emergency following the TPLF theft of the national election.  Meles and his cronies devised an emergency escape plan for themselves and their families where they would take refuge in the Debrezait (Besheftu) air force base outside of Addis Ababa.  Eritrea continues to maintain its stability and has not declared a state of emergency.

Meles has made himself a prisoner within Ethiopia.  Meles rarely leaves the security of his palace quarters.  On the few occasions that he ventures into the city, he is surrounded by his machine gun mounted security escort of armed personnel carriers.  The streets and businesses within the vicinity are shut down and all activity stops for at least two hours.  Even more rare, do we see Meles traveling outside of Addis Abeba to other parts of the country.  In Eritrea, there is not one stretch of land where President Isaias does not visit and where the people do not come out in throngs to greet him.  Whether in the city or the countryside, President Isaias travels with minimal security and obeys all traffic norms as any other motorist on the road, including traffic lights.

Furthermore, in Eritrea you do not see ministers and other officials driving around in government purchased cars with personal bodyguards and chauffeurs.  The same cannot be said about Meles' crooked associates and government officials. 

Meles is despised by 98% of the Ethiopian population.  If the real results of the last election were allowed to be released, the world would know how despised Meles is by the Ethiopian population.  Despite what some media propagandists would like you to believe, President Isaias is loved and respected by 98% of the Eritrean population. 

Meles is a puppet of the West.  At no time does Meles make independent decisions without the explicit instructions of his Western financers.  He has no shame in undermining the well-being of the Ethiopian population for his own personal financial and political gain.  President Isaias Afwerki has always protected and defended the economic, political and territorial integrity of Eritrea and refuses to compromise to any degree the sovereignty and self-reliance of the Eritrean people whether it be through foreign aid dependency, corruption or any other unacceptable conditions.

In conclusion, considering all this, why is the world paying to maintain this facade of a "reform-minded, democratic" leadership as I have seen Meles' regime unscrupulously described recently when all the opposite conditions, including genocide, instability and vote rigging, hold true; this at the expense of millions of people?  The people of Ethiopia and the horn region deserve more justice than this and demand an answer now.