The
Tragedy of Ethiopia
in the dark Continent
By Dr G. Bekele - 31 January 2003
The two most evil men on earth, according to some westerners are Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. But for us Ethiopians, it is Meles Zenawi, who intentionally drove over 100,000 Ethiopian soldiers to that nuisance war to die, slaughtered innocents, systematically auctioned his country and starved his people to death. “Meles Zenawi, a tyrant who maintains a completely repressive state, rules Ethiopia. You do his biding or you are murdered.” That at least is the view of most of the Ethiopian press and the public. He stole the election twice through ballot rigging and the intimidation of his political rivals. His assault on his TPLF colleagues and the general public in general has cited the principal reason for the many misfortunes of Ethiopia. Now he is using every deception, new legislations and terror as a political weapon against the people of Ethiopia.
As a favourite candidate for the
post of “World’s
Most Evil & Traitorous Man,”
he appears to oppose all the right credentials. There is no doubt that Meles is
a ruthless man, or that his policies and treason are contributing to the further
impoverishment of our people. The few but evil plucky men and women are holding
one of the darkest countries in Africa at bay. Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia is a
very dangerous devil in the hellish politics of Ethiopia. It sounds ridiculously
old-fashioned to talk in terms of wicked men as the instigators of great events.
Yet that is the way to describe Meles Zenawi, The Human Butcher Of Africa.
Comparisons with Hitler should be
almost being avoided. He is entitled to a solitary plinth in the pantheon of
evil. Yet there are similarities between him and Meles. Hitler had, as Meles
has, one solitary interest in his country. He regarded it as an instrument for
aggrandisement, and any amount of human misery was justified in pursuit of that
goal. By April 1945, Hitler had lost interest in the German people’s welfare.
As they had failed him and history, their continued existence was of no further
value. There is no evidence that Meles feels any more benevolent towards his
fellow Ethiopians. This little twit is a menace to us all.
Almost as soon as he waded through blood to power, he attacked opposition parties like OLF and others to drive them underground. At that stage there was little censure from the west. Through out all these and others he was not only trying to enhance his power but also as a Shaebian agent, destroy our country. The dangers of such a man possessed with hates for his country and probably evil sprits are so great, self-evident, that mere containment is not enough. There are great risks, however. Once he knows that he is finished, Meles will try anything and do everything. We will require vigilance and luck to frustrate further attacks on the Ethiopian people; exceptional luck if nothing gets through.
There are also legitimate fears as
to the long-term stability of our country and the region if our divisions
continue. We will just have to hope that this is containable. If we avoid these
then, Ethiopia could rapidly become a rich country with highly educated
population. It could also be a force for progress in a country desperately
deficient in progress. The choice would appear to lie between uncorrupted and
anti-authoritarian government that might be the well being of the people or the
militant and Albanian theocracies that give succour to dictators. So why do we
have to back & keep a born looser, dictator and traitor?
I believe that our country as well
as the region can and must do better, and that regime change in Ethiopia will
stimulate the process of improvement. My desire may be bold, even reckless for
Meles and his supporters but for us it is not doomed to failure. Nor it is
hostile to the interests of our neighbours. Otherwise, it is impossible to
tolerate rough state or failed leaders. The corollary of this is the belief that
all our future leaders must be encouraged – and – assisted – to improve
their people’s lot. But how long before Ethiopia’s rapidly growing
inequalities of wealth and rampant corruption force the present ruling party to
change course? I hope our country will not become an exclusively black disaster.
I only write articles from range,
when I want to tell the government, the opposition and the public what to do and
where to go. “For
the public, I always preached unity in diversity and peace but the regime I tell
them to go to hell, though both sides never listened, which means they are
either bad readers or they did not understand what I meant.”
Therefore sometimes I scream with rage. The Ethiopian leadership is lousy,
politically and intellectually short sighted. They are fanatics and arrogant who
neither had the will or courage to resolve the clash between right and right,
wrong and wrong. The opposition? Umm!
In Ethiopia you can scream and yell
day and night. It doesn’t help. Each time you tell the government where to go,
you get an invite for coffee with a minister or are thrown to a smelly prison
for at least six months. All have been through this procedure. They will tell
you that they are great admirers of your ideas, language and style but they are
against your politics. Just once in our lives, we would like them to say your
ideas are lousy, our style stinks but we have a point and then stop looting and
plundering the nation. Everything mustn’t be ignored.
The good or bad news is that almost everybody in Ethiopia and in the
Diaspora now knows what will happen at the end of the day in our country. If you
take a referendum between the East, West, North and South 80% will say I am fed
up with these leaders therefore, there should be separate states without
considering the advantages and disadvantages it will bring in future. These will
be many independent states, organised roughly and demographically without any
future plan how they could survive by them.
Addis Ababa will be many capitals, but not necessarily divided by a barbed wire fence. “As in the case of the Dissidents and the Palace Group, we will not only be divided into two separate family units like semi-detached house but like terraced houses.” The government have divided the nation and closed its ears to the impassioned protests of the general public. Meles is a sharp and vicious gangster, one of many running countries across the world. So why do some TPLF/EPRDF members, instead of opposing him feel it is still necessary to rehabilitate him?
Among most Ethiopian people, Meles
Zenawi inspires much more anger than Mussolini. Ethiopia’s leader murders not
only his enemies but also his innocent countrymen and women including peaceful
demonstrators and students out of sight. Whatever horrors he is brewing in his
secret laboratories and factories of hate, they have not yet been unleashed upon
the world at large. Mr Zenawi, by contrast, terrorises his people under
floodlights. Casual brutality is the nations staple diet – and heaven knows,
there is little enough else to eat. “Ethiopia
is sinking into a slough of corruption, starvation, disease and bankruptcy to
satisfy the megalomania of one man and his nasty anti-Ethiopian party and
regime.”
His tyranny poses no aggressive
treat to the outside world therefore it has been ignored by the west. To our
surprise, Americans regard him as anti-terrorists and pro-democracy. This is
perhaps because his victims are only his own people. Furthermore, while Ethiopia
does not have crud oil like the Iraqi’s and Kuwait the west did not give huts
to protect the Ethiopian people and Ethiopia. Just or unjust that is reality. I
would go further and suggest that no matter what the west thinks and the British
Ambassador in Ethiopia said about the regime, the game is up for these ruthless
dictators. It does not matter whether this is good or bad thing – it
represents the tide of history. “Oppressed
people no longer need words but peace, freedom, food, medicine, security and
real democracy.” Meles is
of course perceived as a leaflet from the past era, flotsam drifting on the
beach of history.
In a succession of lurches and
surges, Ethiopia is reverting to a dark country. Over the past 30 years at
least, all the world’s efforts to provide advice and aid have been frustrated
by cultural resistance, lack of education, population on a vast scale and poor
governance. Many western nations suffer from political corruption too but they
are rich enough and modest enough for the economies & political systems to
co-exist with it. Across Africa and in recent years in Ethiopia however, rulers
have systematically stripped national treasures of their wealth. “It
was estimated recently that national rulers have illegally removed £95 billion
in Sterling or US $150 billion dollars from the African continent.”
Phew!
Since the colonial powers departed
from African countries, such things are happening in Ethiopia too every year
hence it came to the stage even IMF could not trust Ethiopian government anymore
and our banks are not to be audited by local and government appointed auditors.
Hence they insisted other reputable foreign Auditing firms must audit the
accounts for which they had to be forced to advertise in the Economist Magazine.
It is a very embarrassing thing for a regime, which has been telling the world
that it has ruled the country by a democratic system. This tells us something
about this government’s corruption.
Hence no society can prosper amid
corruption on this scale. We used to take for granted the honesty of some of our
judges, ministers, accountants, yes, even banks and bureaucrats. Honesty is not
only the best policy; it is indispensable if any economic system is to prosper. “In
Ethiopia, the only wholly successful modern industry is
the
theft of cash from businesses, aid funds, government coffers, utilities, mines,
charities and for all we know church poor boxes. The public is frustrated,
incensed and fed up of all these. The home truth is, in our country, if you
don’t use power to enrich yourself and your family you are not merely behaving
foolishly, but also you are thought to be acting wickedly.”
“Therefore,
they had all milked the Ethiopian cow without feeding it and have ripped off the
economy by depositing millions of Ethiopian money in their overseas offshore
bank accounts. It has come to a situation that, there is absolutely no
understanding in our country of the ideal of the community, of people at large.
There is only the family, the tribe and yourself. Almost our country has been
governed solely in the interests of its ruling clique & their families.”
National bankruptcy does nothing to diminish a bottomless appetite for 1st
class air travel and absurdity pretentious embassies abroad.”
The recent example is that of the likes of Berhane Gebre-Kirstos of
Brussels, Habtom of Holland Embassy, Yitbarek of Germany, Mebrat Beyene, wife of
Yemane Kidane (Jamaica) of London Embassy and a big headed, two faced moron and
totally useless ex-Derg cadre and slob called Fisseha Alemayehu of TPLF office
who went to Milan, Italy and elsewhere to beg some confused individuals, gather
supports for the destruction of our country and in the process save Meles by
bribing some opportunistic Tigrayans. Their expenses were estimated to be around
US $ 50,000. It has also been reported that their campaign continued in
different countries incurring heavy costs to the Ethiopian taxpayers. Other
officials are wondering around the world too. This was at a time when 15 million
people are starving & the whole country is in all sorts of difficult
problems.
Our corrupt country is going backwards and the outside world
couldn’t give a damn. In general the dark continent of Africa’s story will
become an exclusively black disaster. Strife: Africa’s aggression and
corruption is aimed at its own people. “Look
at the roll call in London alone – according to my research some of the most
expensive real estates in the capital are occupied by the diplomatic missions of
some of the poorest nations in the world: Malawi in Grosvenor Street; Tanzania
in Hertford Street; Zambia in palace Gate; Zimbabwe in the Strand and Ethiopian
Embassy in Princes Gate. Moreover, the monthly expenses required to maintain
this prestigious buildings in many cases are higher than yearly budgets
allocated to regional governments.” The government is only nursing 10 to 15
inexperienced diplomats who virtually do nothing good for their country except
feeding the government with lies and malicious gossips about Ethiopians.
Since the 1960s and by almost every
economic measure, our country, Ethiopia has gone backwards, not forwards. Three
years ago, America’s then president, Bill Clinton, toured African continent
and delivered a series of supremely cynical speeches, proclaiming, “the
West would henceforward be coming to Africa’s aid. It sounded like rubbish
then and it is rubbish now.”
The west has no intention bailing out of Africa, even if the west has surges of
compassion for the place. Donors are tired of giving cash of which only a
smidgen reaches the people for whom it is intended. Food deliveries to starving
people will continue, but these do nothing to salvage collapsing economies and
get rid of dictatorial rules.
The end of the cold war means that
no great power feels a need to buy influence there. For very many years, African
leaders bitterly denounced ‘imperialist
interference’ in their
countries. Today, they are learning that international indifference is far more
painful. For Ethiopian people, the future looks even grimmer than the past and
than most of Africa’s people elsewhere. Aids are ravaging the population. The
statisticians expect its consequences to grow much worse before they get better.
But our liberation is God willing going to happen soon. We must bring and
support democratic reign in Ethiopia once and for all. We should not sapper one
dictator with another. Never! Our vision of Ethiopia is for a free Ethiopia that is democratic
and liberalized. There will be no room for erratic
dictator’s flawed character and
supremacists who uses the gun one week, the olive branch the next. I will
continue my crusade to speak up for the common man.
The influential American academic
Philip Bobbitt, in his recent book; “The Shield Of Achilles,” observed that
he sees only misery ahead for Africans in the 21st century, as
disease, famine and corruption relentlessly assail them. There was a vivid
moment a couple of years ago during the first stage of the British intervention
to support the struggling government of Sierra Leone. “As
reported in The Guardian, its Prime Minister asked a visiting British
politician, in the presence of journalists, if it might be possible for his
country to become part of the British Empire.” “I
hope Meles would not ask Isaias to make Ethiopia part of the Eritrean regime to
compensate his refusals to claim the ownership of the port of Assab.”
Most of those present they say
believed that the Leone’s leader was serious. The problems of African
societies are so huge, so deep-rooted, that the few honest and decent
politicians despair. They grasp at any straw to rescue their countries when
others like the Ethiopian Prime Minister destroy his country’s economy and
pass his lands to our natural enemies. It is a tragic spectacle for Ethiopia,
and few expert onlookers see a way out. When the west does intervene in any
African society, it is essential to stay for at least ten years to have any hope
of making lasting progress. Just like a Japanese dinner that is fishy &
half-baked.
“The Americans failed miserably in Somalia a decade ago, because
they treated it as a short-term military problem. They also failed in Ethiopia
for putting gun trotting and undemocratic guerrillas on power to help Eritrean
independence and as result to suit their purpose in regards to Assab for which
they had planned to make a Military Base to attack Iraq and expand their
interests around the Middle East. The British army training team in Sierra Leone
has done a good job, but the lasting need is for civil assistance to teach
people how to collect taxes, administer courts and run infrastructure projects.
They have turned to Ethiopia praising the leadership & assisting the
Ethiopian evil regime with arms and military training at a time when we
desperately need food aid. We are talking, of course, about something
embarrassing close to neo-colonialism.”
Many Ethiopians would be delighted if there was more of it about. But the political obstacles remain overwhelming, the imperial memory too fresh at its worst form. It is still far too soon to judge whether Britain’s intervention even in tiny Sierra Leone will accomplish anything of value. There is so much to do and it is bound to take so long. Almost every western attempt to help Africa founders, sooner or later amid the morass of political prejudice and cultural division. “The west has gone along with Meles’s dictatorial regime too. But Ethiopia’s voters are not. Because there is no point in a future if we don’t have a country.” The west and other collaborators are the most diabolical products.
The big fib, propagated at the time
of African independence, was that local people wanted the right to vote. Not so
in Ethiopia. All the past and present governments of Ethiopia scarcely cared for
a fig for ballots, most of which were soon rigged away. They wanted the land,
cars, houses, and businesses of their erstwhile imperialist and feudalist rulers
before them. They still want these in Ethiopia. Sooner or later, Ethiopian
leaders find it expedient to hand over the royal family’s luxury goods to
their own people, without all the bother of explaining that these things should
be won through education, skills, enterprise, and hard labour over generations.
As a result, the world’s last Stalinist leaders have 15 million people
starving. The survival of 65 million Ethiopians and its sovereignty are at stake
too. Mad or bad, Meles is more
menacing than Sadam & Osama.
I was never a supporter of neither
dictator Mengistu Hailemariam’s Ethiopia nor Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, which
were founded upon a huge injustice to Ethiopians and in the case of Rhodesia to
the blacks, sustained by cruelties as horrible as those of Meles today. In the
case of those colonized, white minority rule in South Africa for example, was a
loath-some thing. Thank God it has gone. But it remains a tragedy to see,
black-ruled Africa and in particular Ethiopia sinking into the swamp of history.
Outsiders can do little to save it from itself as long as it remains a continent
of tyrants, and democracy is making no headway at all. “This
has but one goal – to bring about the downfall of these dictators.”
There is one striking oddity about
Ethiopia’s misery today: passions remain entirely internally directed. Whereas
in the Middle East resentment of the rich west spawns terrorism and the active
hostility, above all towards the United States. And even Meles’s denunciations
of Isaias, when debating about Assab and our entire sovereignty lacked truth and
conviction. “What
we saw was not an Ethiopian Prime Minister, not even a loyal leader of TPLF. It
was a sold-out devious man under great pressure from Shabian leaders and western
enemies to systematically divide and destroy Ethiopia. He knows more about these
issues in his heart than he is revealing in public. Nevertheless,
he has been sending out a message that he is not a leader for this kind of time
in this kind of country. He appeared to have demonstrated time and time again
that he does not accept the logic of being an Ethiopian.” As
a result, he now appears to be running out of threats and friends even in his
own circles. He should go now before it is too late.
Ethiopia’s rulers are
overwhelmingly preoccupied with their personal cravings for wealth. Their
subjects merely struggle to survive. Some observers believe that this may change
as the power of Islam grows across the continent. Experts argued and predicted,
that the influence of the Muslim religion may generate a new assertiveness, even
aggression, a decade or two onwards. That could be the reason too why Sheik Al-Amoud
is building Mosques everywhere in Ethiopia. For now,
however, Ethiopian passions focus exclusively upon futile thrashings to make
some brand of authoritarian socialism blossom amid the failing crops. Meles
is as slippery as eel, and as cunning as a fox. However, even for the few
die-hard supporters like Hmbasha, Aiga, poor Mulugeta Aserate-Kassa, Ye-Gitim
Derasiew Haileselassie Girmay of “Poems On Walk”, it is hard to imagine how
Meles can survive for too long.
You may have noticed that even as more and more whites are obliged to quit Africa, growing numbers of black Africans and in particular Ethiopians, seek to migrate or fled to Europe and the United states – refugees from the economic catastrophes their own rulers have created at home. On every plane that bears sorrowing whites away from the continent of their birth like South Africa and Zimbabwe into exile in Europe or Australia, there are also very many seats occupied by departing Ethiopians and Africans who are just as much victims of the whites in their countries. To me, the year ahead looks utterly sad and vile. So much so, it seems perverse to joke about it when we see how the opposition political parties, the civic organisations, the web sites and individuals are behaving. On the other hand, Meles’s Albanian Marxist Doctrine is not working. It is a bitter historic irony. The issue is simple. Ethiopia is a tortured and miserable land savaged by ethnic clashes, war, disease and division thus ruled by a tyrant. Hence if we keep on fighting each other, we may end up somewhere else.
“The
Ethiopian people are utterly sickened by what they see happening in Ethiopia and
have said lots & written volumes accusing the government. The denial of
human rights, the rule of law cast aside in the ruthless, megalomaniac pursuit
of power. Above all it is a country that is enduring terrible man-made human
sufferings. There are millions dying of hunger created by Meles’s “inhuman
policies and the ethnic federal system.” It makes all of us sick to see Meles
sitting there and wondering around the globe as a good statesman pretending that
everything is fine in Ethiopia when it is not. At stake is not just the
thoroughly tainted reputation of the government, but also the trust on which our
democratic system (if there was any) is based.”
Should we ignore all these, and pretend
like EPRDF supporters that it is not happening or the hunger and all these
disasters are created because of draught? If we do, that will be playing
Meles’s game.
“Judging
by all their reports, press releases, draconian laws, distorted commentaries on
their supporter’s sites and all the Human Right Abuses recorded at
international level, Meles, his regime and their bunch of idiot supporters who
seems to be specialising on lies and their own fictitious story of Dr
T.A.Taddese that Hmbasha’s Alebachew Gibray once said was Dr G Bekele has
failed to challenge me for it. Now they have passed the same allegation to one
of their friends at Aiga to a clever researcher called Getahun Gebre-Amlak who
now said the so-called Dr Taddese at last is found to be not Dr G Bekele but
Taddese Aregahegn of Tigrai. If that was the truth, then how come Hmbasha &
Co. did not have the decency to apologise to me and are still displaying their
false accusation on their ugly web site? Sadly,
these people do not even admit to knowing the term or phrase “inhuman policies
and abuse of human rights” means, rather like Sicilians who say “mafia, what
mafia?” It is a shrewd response – considering that the government seems
determined to keep on deceiving the international community and treat its
citizens like anti-social elements or foreign enemies. Therefore, who in his
right mind expect good things from their ordinary supporters and rascals named
above?”
It is hardly surprising that these morons keep on denying my being G Bekele and attack me in an attempt to deny and ignore our country’s problems with such religious zeal and shamelessness. “Ethiopia is difficult to destroy. Ethiopians are like palm trees that bend in the wind but never break. Now the wind is of course blowing stronger than ever, but it will pass soon. Ethiopian enemies will be humiliated and defeated. Period!” But to live in these times without striving to change them is like watching with serenity, the oncoming truck in your path. It is not only a matter of political issue, but also a matter of conscience. It is hardly an issue about Meles’s policy anymore. It is a moral issue. The country has been badly betrayed in the past eleven years hence we have to say enough is enough.
Meles has been following the
law of evil based on power and opportunity rather than the law of love and
justice. Furthermore, the problem in our country, it seems to me, is that there
are in thrall to foreign consultants, lobbyists, uneducated political advisors
and tribalism think tanks who tell us how things ought to work and refuse to
believe the evidence when it doesn’t. For over eleven years, Meles Zenawi and
most of his ministers were doing the same job. They all sound bored and
confused. What is more, the EPRDF leaders are startling to look rather old
fashioned and stale, or at least they are men and women of the past era. “Meles
has failed - and shamed the nation. As long as Meles Zenawi is there as a
leader, TPLF is doomed too. And it knows it very well.
He has led EPRDF to the edge of the precipice where it can finally see
rock bottom making Ethiopia a terrifying place to live. Fear is Mele’s method
for staying in power.” Ethiopia’s history has become Black
Disaster.
- God
save
Mother
Ethiopia!
Tragedy? Yes! Bashing Meles? I make no apology!