Don't praise those who cannot learn from history

 

-Open letter to Professor Ephrem Isaac

  

By Abebe Gelaw / 29 July 2007

 

Dear Professor Ephrem,

First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the mediation efforts that you and other fellow Ethiopians have been undertaking to resolve the current political crisis in Ethiopia.

 

The release of some of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s prominent political hostages, including prominent leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party and Professor Mesfin Woldemariam,77, the father of Ethiopian human rights advocacy, despite the ransom paid to him in the form of transfer of his guilt unto his victims under duress, is one little step in the right direction to resolve the huge political challenges facing our poor country and people.

 

It is with a great deal of interest that I followed your interviews with ETV and Addis Dimits Radio. Unfortunately, the ETV show was done to brainwash the nation how merciful our oppressive ruler is for releasing the most “dangerous criminals” in the country who were just condemned by his own Kangaroo court to spend the rest of their lives in jails. I felt unease to watch such eminent Ethiopians like yourself to have been used wilfully as propaganda Muppets.

 

It was quite troubling to watch you on national TV heaping accolade on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. According to your eminence, Meles Zenawi is a wise, visionary and magnanimous leader and his decision to release the popular leaders makes him a holy man. I have no problem with your assertions provided you can support your claims with hard facts. I am sure there is no single document or fact that can corroborate your unjustified and misplaced accolade.

 

Haven't you heard about the May 2005 elections which international observers certified to be rigged by Mr Zenawi's party, TPLF/EPDRF, to reverse resounding defeats at the polls? Haven't you heard about the 193 civilians killed in cold blood and 980 young men, women and children who have been maimed and disabled with brute force for demanding respect for the popular will? Haven't you heard about the 50,000 people who were rounded up and sent to malaria infested, wild and hostile concentration camps? Haven't you heard about Etenesh Yimam, 46, the woman who was shot dead in front of her children for being hysterical while her husband was being brutally attacked by security forces who went to his home to drag him to jail? Haven't you heard about Shibre Deselagne,21, the young woman shot dead for protesting against the mass detention of university students? Haven't you read what a shocked journalist, David Blair of the Daily Telegraph wrote on 16 December 2005? He wrote: "A crackdown on this scale has not been seen in Africa for 20 years and the repression exceeds anything by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for the past decade at least. Apartheid-era South Africa's onslaught against the black townships in the 1980s provides the only recent comparison. Ethiopia sank into crisis after a general election in May." Haven't you heard any rumours and read stories about the atrocities that this magnanimous ruler has been committing with impunity since he came to power in May 1991? I am sure you have!

 

Dear Professor,

As an eminent historian, I am certain that you are fully aware of the fact that, even Col. Mengistu Hailemariam, as is always the case with other despots, became a bold dictator after his followers and admirers started calling him the infallible great leader whose crimes against humanity were the right measures to exterminate reactionaries and agents of imperialism. Be it for the purpose of diplomacy or for its own sake, praising rulers that have been messing up poor nations can only backfire with the undesired outcome of emboldening them even more to unleashing greater atrocities and terrorist acts.

 

I think your interview with Addis Dimts was not as good as it should have been. When you were asked what your views were on HR2003, you said that you had not read the bill at all. Well! That should not have raised any concern, had you not avoided direct questions whether you have been making any efforts to help the regime to kill the bill in its infancy. Though you spoke at great length expressing your patriotic thinking, you said that you would oppose the bill as it could be a scheme to “enslave” Ethiopia.

As you are aware, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who has been ruling us without securing our consent, succeeded in frustrating HR5680 using highly paid agents and lobbyists including DLA Piper which is paid over $50,000 a month, which is  a waste of the poor taxpayer money. Professor Al Mariam was honest enough to tell you that he found it hard to believe you did not have a chance to scan through the ten-page document. In case you honestly did not have time to have a look at HR2003, which is not significantly different from HR5680, before you allegedly went to the US Congress accompanied by Congressman Gary Ackerman of New York to discuss issues related to the bill, here are some of the most eye-catching phrases:

Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007 - States that it is U.S. policy to: (1) support human rights, democracy, independence of the judiciary, freedom of the press, peacekeeping capacity building, and economic development in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; (2) collaborate with Ethiopia in the Global War on Terror; (3) seek the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia; (4) foster stability, democracy, and economic development in the region; and (5) strengthen U.S.-Ethiopian relations.

Dear Professor,

After your visits to the US Congress, it has been reported by credible sources that US Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos was directed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer not to mark-up H.R. 2003 on July 31, 2007.

Why does the the PM lose sleep over the good intention of the US Congress to help promote human rights, democracy, independence of the judiciary, freedom of the press and steady economic development in Ethiopia? What has HR2003 to do with the release of political hostages? Apparently the Prime Minister is blackmailing the US Congress by threatening that he will not release any political prisoners if HR2003 is marked up.

Nobody should rush to condemn you as a mediator with a sinister motive. However, one might be tempted to point out the glaring fact that any mediator should make utmost efforts to remain neutral. If, at any time, you try to help Mr Zenawi to derail a bill that can greatly facilitate the attainment of democracy, respect for human rights, the rule of law and good governance, you will inevitably face the wrath of millions of Ethiopians who still respect you as an elderly Ethiopian scholar. The release of some political hostages, who should never have spent a single day in jails, cannot be exchanged for the aspiration of the whole nation to be free at last.

 

In your ETV interview, you also said that you would make efforts to reconcile the Meles regime with the Diaspora before the new Ethiopian millennium. Common sense has it that those of us, who have tasted the sweetness of liberty in exile, hate not the ethnic junta in power but their misdeeds and misrule. We hate their heinous crimes against humanity, injustice, corruption and their unacceptable dictatorship.

 

Who cares about the so-called new millennium if it doesn’t usher in a new era where every Ethiopian lives in peace and liberty governed by elected leaders? If our long and glorious history fails to make Ethiopia a country that its citizens are proud of, who cares about the millennium party that Meles Zenawi and his cohorts are using as a propaganda ploy?

 

Dear Professor,

You should not also forget the fact that Meles Zenawi must be told at every opportunity that his futile effort to reverse the popular demand for a new Ethiopia where leaders are accountable to the people. You will also do Ethiopia a great service if you remind the tyrant to start living as a man of the new millennium rather than being a Stone Age despot whose survival hinges upon the barrel of the gun.  If he listens to this simple piece of suggestion and surrenders power to the elected, then we will all join you to praise him as “THE GREATEST ETHIOPIAN OF THE MILLENNIUM.”

 

Here is what one of the greatest leaders ever born did before the festivities of the millennium, as reported by the BBC. On the eve of the new millennium, December 31, 1999, Nelson Mandela returned to his prison cell in Robben Island, where he was locked up for 18 years to light a "flame for freedom".

 

Handing a big white candle to his successor, President Thabo Mbeki, he said: "There are good men and women around the world that will always keep that flame burning. It symbolizes that the freedom flame can never be put down by anybody." 

 

The great man said with a great sense of humility: "In particular, let us make our country and the world a safer and more caring and respectful place.” He never said let us oppress, kill, maim and jail innocent victims.

 

Unfortunately, our ruler Meles Zenawi, whom some naively thought would be our Mandela, is a man who is out to turn the clock back to Stone Ages. He is the one who wants to put down the flames of freedom. What a visionary leader!

 

The new millennium can be a watershed in Ethiopian history only if every Ethiopian, regardless of their ethnic origin, social status, gender, age, educational background or political affiliation, gets equal opportunities to attain their fullest potential. The new millennium can make sense only if Ethiopians will no longer be enslaved and brutalized by dictators who continuously shatter our hopes for a new era and condemn us to live under the darkness of tyranny and abject poverty. Celebrating the so-called millennium with the lords of poverty, who are allergic to the dynamic changes of the 21^st century, is nothing but re-enacting April fool’s day in Ethiopia on New Year's day.

 

Dear Professor,

If Meles Zenawi allows you, as a peace envoy, to discuss what ordinary Ethiopians wish to have for the new millennium, please tell him to

-         free all political prisoners without any preconditions and ransom

-         respect the sanctity of life and human rights

-     put an end to torture, arbitrary arrest and extrajudicial killings

-         respect the rule of law and independence of the judiciary

-         respect the constitution and allow citizens to elect their leaders

-         allow citizens to stage peaceful protests or go on strike without any fear of retributions

-         give equal access to public funded media to all citizens

-         ensure freedom of the press and stop censoring the internet

-         close down illegal party run businesses that undermine free market economy

-         create an enabling environment to defeat abject poverty and break the fangs of hunger

-         start comprehensive national reconciliation

-         and, most importantly, hand over power peacefully to those who the have the mandate to rule.

 

As a historian, you should also remind Meles Zenawi and his cohorts the simple truth that: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” as George Santayana once said. No amount of homage can help him change this glaring fact.

 

An enlightened nation can no longer live under the darkness of tyranny. No ruler should rule any nations with arrogance and brute force  any longer. It is an age of great awakening. 

 

Dear Professor

Finally, I would like to beg for your forgiveness if at all I have been too bold. But I assure you that I have no intention of diminishing your great patriotic efforts and accomplishments. My intention is to make a small point so that your good deeds would not be tainted with doubt while praising those who have been dehumanizing your fellow citizens. In any case, our peaceful struggle must continue until the sun of freedom shines all over Ethiopia.

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Exiled Ethiopian journalist Abebe Gelaw is founder and editor of Addisvoice.com. He can be reached at editor@addisvoice.com

 

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