A Follow up on My Open Letter to Senator Feingold et al

By Tecola W. Hagos                                                 printer friendly 

�I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.� Kahlil Gibran

I. Introduction

At times I become a prey to my own obsessive effort to be clearly understood by my readers. What is the point of writing otherwise, for no one writes in order to be obscure. I see in some of the responses to my recent article (�Open Letter to Senator Russ Feingold, Representative Donald Payne, and to all Members of the Congress of the United States�) how easily I was misunderstood. The part that irked some of my readers seems to me their own misunderstanding of my statement about Meles Zenawi. My detractors wrongly surmised that I was supporting the continuation of the leadership of Meles Zenawi at the cost of the human and civil rights of Ethiopian citizens. Such idea was never my position. In that essay cited above, I used a form of argument that logicians call �material implication� expressing the impracticality of having ones own fight championed by a foreign government.

What I suggested in my article, in its simplified form, was that if it is possible to change the political situation in Ethiopia using a foreign power, then the government of Meles Zenawi is a democratic one that I will work with. It is perfectly acceptable to use such contrasting implications to deny the truth value of an antecedent by contrasting it with an obvious falsehood of a consequent. It is like saying, �If President George Bush is a consensus builder, then the Moon is made of Cheese.� And that is precisely the essence of my contrasting views on Feingold�s Bill and Meles Zenawi. I would not blame some of my readers for the confusion and for not understanding the meaning of my statements. Nevertheless, there are several points that need more clarifications and follow up restatements.

I would like also to clarify the legal theory behind my suggestion that charges be instituted under the Penal Code of Ethiopia against Feingold, Payne et al.  I was asked to clarify my position because some individuals were worried for it seemed to some I was against freedom of speech and expression. What was attempted by Feingold, Payne et al goes beyond mere expression of ideas and has substantial development in the direction of sabotaging Ethiopia�s vital interest, which is a criminal act (there are numerous case precedents). For example, the United States Government tried and convicted General Noriega in 1992, who was a head of state at the time of his capture. Noriega was captured after the United States invaded Panama, and he was charged with a crime camouflaged as a charge for drug trafficking, but in fact Noriega was ousted from power because he threatened the national security interest of the United States. Saddam Hussein is another case. There are several cases where government leaders or military commanders were tried by foreign courts or international tribunals. What is important is the principle and not whether Ethiopia would be able physically capture such officials and their supporters in order to try them under the Penal Code of Ethiopia.  

I want it to be clearly understood that I was not selecting facts to fit my argument and the conclusion thereof. I did not undermine the suffering of Ethiopians in the hands of a brutal and vicious government and leader. However, I would like to underscore the fact that the suffering of Ethiopians did not start yesterday, and it is not only due to bad governance, but is also due to a stagnant and exhausted ancient culture, some centuries old social norms that inhibited creativity, ignorance, and isolated life et cetera. It seems nature and history has conspired also against our development. It is not any lack of effort on our part either, and I know of no people on Earth who work any harder than Ethiopians. Even when it comes to our own Diaspora politics, what I read from the vociferous and often sever statements of my critics is their uncalled for ethnic slurs and trash language. The problem of underdevelopment, poverty, or social ills cannot be so easily explained even by serious scholars of poverty, such as Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize Laureate, let alone by amateurs.  

Even if political power by some miracle is transferred to those who endlessly insult, demonize, and dehumanize those who are in power, there will not be much of a democracy in Ethiopia, or much of economic development either. Ethiopia is suffering from serious handicaps of lack of sufficiently politicized and skillful productive workers with developed technical abilities to control nature and use it to improve the quality of life of its citizens. This phenomenon may have been exasperated in the last one hundred years due to the education policies of our rulers. I do not have to go far to show the validity of my statement. Here in the Ethiopian Diaspora itself, I wonder how many Ethiopians work in construction, factories, manufacturing et cetera. Do not get me wrong here too, such jobs are respectable jobs. They are the types of jobs that produce value and bring about economic development in a society. It is impossible to build the economy of a country by an army of waiters and tour guides. The problem of poverty in Ethiopia is a far more complex and far reaching problem than simple reductionist conclusions suggest.

From our recent memories, it is obvious that the inequities of Emperor Haile Selassie led directly to the rise of Mengistu Hailemariam to power, a man totally unprepared for leadership, who ultimately murdered directly or through functionaries no less than half a million Ethiopians in his seventeen years of reign of terror. Those of us who were adults in the 1970s remember how some conspirators within the Ethiopian military and most of the radical elements in society including students used the famine in Wollo to instigate civil disorder by pointing out the mismanagement of the country by Emperor Haile Selassie, his Ministers, and his Governors in order to dethrone the Emperor. Seventeen Years later, the inequities and excesses of Mengistu Hailemariam led in turn to the rise of Meles Zenawi, who carried out atrocities on lesser scale (not at all comparable to that of Mengistu), but harmed Ethiopia�s national integrity far deeper than any leader in Ethiopian history. Meles and the Liberation movements he led used similar rhetorical arguments based on a series of famines that occurred in the 1980s in Tygrai and Wollo to make their case against Mengistu Hailemariam. The same forms of arguments are pushed by the current opposition forces in the Diaspora in order to replace Meles Zenawi and his political group from power. However, there is a serious difference in some of the rhetoric used now by the opposition. Shamefully, some of the rhetoric by some of the supporters of the opposition forces use narrow ethnicism and lies to promote opposition to the current Ethiopian Government and Meles Zenawi. What we have is a far more fractured society than any time in Ethiopia�s modern history.

II. The United States, Feingold, and the Destruction of Ethiopia

Before I discuss how far Senator Feingold is hurting Ethiopia knowingly or unknowingly, I would like to point out the fact that the People of the United States have nothing to do with the esoteric effort of Feingold or Payne in trying to censor Ethiopia, a sovereign nation and the Founding Member of the United Nations not to mention a long time friend of the People and Government of the United States. On a personal note, I would not even dream of, even in my remotest imagination, hurting the people of the United States, nor wish them any ill. If at all, my criticisms of individual Americans that I had dealt with on some professional level, or the officials of the Government of the United States that were involved in some way with the economic and political life of Ethiopia and Ethiopians is a reflection of my high expectations that the United States will live up to its ideal enshrined in its great document, the Constitution. I am not some one who bites the hand that feeds it. To the contrary, I want to see the United States fully realize the ideal it set for all mankind of prosperity, freedom, and enlightenment.

I have read blogs and statements by Mengistu Hailemariam�s ex officials and/or descendants of such officials trying to white-wash the bloody history of Mengistu Hailemariam by pointing out the atrocities of Meles Zenawi. Two wrongs do not cancel out each other, but rather draw grimmer pictures of the state of our society. At any rate, it seems to me that comparing miseries is not helpful in advancing the causes of democracy and economic development for the people of Ethiopia. At any rate, the atrocities committed by Mengistu Hailemariam and his bloody executioners, some of whom living here in the United States, has no comparison in the entire history of Ethiopia. Mengistu butchered about half a million Ethiopians, young and old, men and women, boys and girls whose dead bodies often were left on streets and squares for days on display in an orgy of violence that ultimately lasted for the entire period of Mengistu�s reign of terror of seventeen years. According to eyewitness accounts and official records of Kebeles and police stations sized by the officials of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia in 1991 and after, in the Red Terror campaign alone in 1978 for a period of one month over one hundred thousand Ethiopians, mostly students, all over Ethiopia, were butchered on the order of Mengistu Hailemariam. It was not without reason that he was named the �Butcher of Addis Ababa.� Shame on anyone who tries to whitewash the horrendous crimes committed by the diminutive fascist Mengistu in order to condemn Meles Zenawi.

Let us not confuse the issue of Ethiopian Sovereignty and territorial integrity with the issue of whether Meles Zenawi is the right person to lead Ethiopia. Our responsibility to safeguard the Sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia is independent of whether a particular Ethiopian leader is worthy and capable to lead Ethiopia. This is where I find most of the argument of individuals opposed to Meles Zenawi and his Government confusing the two issues and even ending up supporting a law to be promulgated by a foreign Government that censors �Ethiopia� in order to achieve a change of government and its policy on democratic governance and human rights. For example, a certain individual writing under the name of �Ewinetu� wrote a kind of rebuttal of my open letter, which rebuttal was full of errors with confused understanding of the meaning of Sovereignty under international law. I wish such Ethiopians for a change stop hiding and face whom they oppose face to face rather than hide behind some fake name. Obviously Ewinetu and others like him/her are fearful cowards. I wonder how they are going to stand up to Meles Zenawi, with his military forces, when they cannot even stand up to me who is just a private person, without hiding behind some fake names.

Earlier in the year, some individuals had supported Representative Donald Payne and his HR 2003 and now they are supporting Senator Feingold and his S. 3457 against Ethiopia. I have pointed out in my previous article that Feingold�s draft bill is an attack on the Sovereignty of Ethiopia; that the bill is contrary to international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and several Resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations on friendly relations of states.  I have pointed out the fact that Ethiopia�s enemies are behind such a bill to dismantle Ethiopia. I have also pointed out the monumental fact that if the intentions of the men from Congress were to set standards of behaviors of national governments that receive funds from the United States, there is no need to single out Ethiopia among so many other nations who committed worse atrocities and yet receive even larger funds than Ethiopia from the United States.

I would like to add here to my statements in my previous article that rattled some of my readers and drove them into accusing me of supporting Meles to stay in power the following: Meles Zenawi or the ruling EPRDF Party does not need my endorsement or support to stay in power. They have stayed in power for seventeen years without my advice or support from me. My detractors lie about my record and my life. It is to be recalled that I left Ethiopia in 1993, after serving the Ethiopian Government mostly without pay, less than two years after having returned from a long exile (1976-1991) from the brutal Government of Mengistu Hailemariam. I returned to Ethiopia eager to serve Ethiopia as an agent of change, progress, and democratization. I did not participate or advise Meles Zenawi or anyone else on the establishment of any kind of federal structure based on ethnicism; I did not advise anyone, including Meles Zenawi, on ceding Eritrea. I supported the idea of political solution rather than violence in establishing a democratic system of Government for Ethiopia. I have never even entertained the possibility of an independent Eritrea let alone participate in the secession or cessation process of Eritrea as part of Ethiopia. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong!

I did support and did advocate declaring the Workers Party of Ethiopia (WPE) a criminal organization; WPE was Mengistu�s version of a Nazi party. I did write memos advising the Transitional Government of Ethiopia in 1991 and after to bring charges against Mengistu Hailemariam and against the main officials of Mengistu�s Reign of Terror for the crimes committed against Ethiopians, including charges for the murder of Emperor Haile Selassie, Patriarch Teweflos head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the sixty high officials massacred at Alem Bekagn Prison (I was a prisoner myself in Alem Bekagn the night of the murder), and the hundreds of thousands of innocent Ethiopians butchered during the Red Terror and after. I still insist those barbarians who were part and parcel of Mengistu�s inner circle and worked as high officials who are hiding in Ethiopia or living in exile anywhere in the world as we speak must be tried for crimes against humanity wherever they are found.    

If the concern of Feingold, Payne, and their Ethiopian supporters is to change the Government of Meles Zenawi and replace Meles Zenawi with a new leadership, why was it necessary to attack the State of Ethiopia naming it in the title of a local United States Government bill? If Meles Zenawi�s activities and mode of governance was the object and target of the bill from the House and the draft bill from the Senate, then those bills should have been constructed using the name of Meles Zenawi in the titles of the bills and not the State of Ethiopia. �Ethiopia� as a State did nothing wrong to the United States or to its own people. In fact Ethiopia is the victim of Meles Zenawi and numerous Emperors and kings in our past. In our own time, it is Meles Zenawi and his circle of supporters who are responsible for the types of inequities the Department of States reported to the Congress, and what Feingold and Payne have referred to in their respective bills. Then, what type of voodoo logic are they using that would end up tying �Ethiopia,� the victim state of tyranny, to an obnoxious and insulting draft Bill S. 3457? My detractors, rather than presenting an ad homenim attack on me, ought to focus on the serious issue that challenges the very existence of Ethiopia. I urge them to focus on the survival of Ethiopia, not their own little vengeful lives or bruised egos.

Nevertheless, I believe there is an alarming development in the United States Government. It seems to me this is the first shot in the process of the further dismantling of Ethiopia into Oromia, then the Ogaden, and finally Western Ethiopia into the North and South Sudan.  This time the spearhead is not the CIA�s Copland, but Feingold and Payne of the Congress of the United States. Once again Feingold is abusing his office writing a dishonest letter on September 22, 2008 to the State Department, where he tried to use a July 31 (he withheld the year) meeting with officials from the State Department, to bring up now a legal issue of certification by the President on the military assistance provided to Ethiopia by the United States Government. What was Feingold doing all this time since July 31? It seems like he received some kind of Divine revelation from the �Dome� of the building of the Congress, and suddenly he is now focusing his attention on Ethiopia. Feingold is a hypocrite not worthy of the office he is holding. If he were an honest man he should be writing about such certification about very many and far more violent national governments in the Middle East than the Government of Ethiopia. Feingold wants to disarm Ethiopia, a sovereign nation, from defending itself. Even the Charter of the United Nations recognized and acknowledged that fundamental norm of international law�the right of self defense.

In a number of its activities, the United States Government does not seem to be a true friend to Ethiopia. In fact, its activities behind the scene have been hostile to Ethiopia�s vital interest. Professor Aleme Eshete from some years ago and recently also has provided us with meticulous account how the CIA conspired to landlock Ethiopia, create an independent Eritrea, and marginalize Ethiopia. I quote also from the communication of Professor Aleme Eshete with Professor Donald Levine, an Ethiopia admirer and supporter, the exception to most leaders in all past and present officials of the Government of the United States.

�Professor Levine says America has been a friend of Ethiopia since World War II. You might tell that to a less informed public, or to a public silenced by the desire to live and make money � that is, the American dream! Given my professional interest in history and politics, this is a subject, which I have at heart, which I feel strongly about, and which has tormented me for a long time as a powerless mortal incapable of influencing the course of events and change the sad condition of life of my countrymen. Professor Levine, there is no way to escape the fact, that once again in our history, a fair amount of our woes and tribulations since World War II are the result of the rise of the U.S as the new world power in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, replacing the former European colonial powers, particularly Great Britain, and our association with the super power hegemony of the United States of America, in rivalry with the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War, and the struggle against Communism. Basically, it is common knowledge that super powers, have no friends, but strategic interests.  Ethiopia has no petrol or diamonds. But it is a Red Sea littoral region, a major international route, and in proximity to Arab and Persian Gulf. Oil, a vital U.S interest.� Aleme Eshete, The C.I.A. in Africa, [From Research notes of Dr. Aleme Eshete]

 https://www.tecolahagos.com/Alem_Eshate_cia.htm, 2008

Representative Payne and Senator Feingold now are the spearheads of the destructive aspect of the United States Government that seems to be initiating a line of attack against Ethiopia. Ethiopians who promoted those destructive bills in congress do not seem to realize how they are being used to destroy their own motherland by the enemies of Ethiopia. Feingold writing to the State Department about certification in order to stop any military assistance from the United States to Ethiopia goes beyond economic pressure for change, and shows the true color of Feingold and Payne. It is unbelievable that Feingold would have such myopic vision and understanding of the long history of struggle for survival of the people of Ethiopia in freedom and sovereign independence. Feingold�s effort to disarm Ethiopia from defending itself even though it is surrounded by hostile nations that are well armed is a truly shameful act. Do not be surprised about such development, for the United States Government had a checkered record in hurting Ethiopia at its most vulnerable times:

(1) The United States Government had imposed sanctions when Ethiopia was fighting Fascist Italy in 1935-41;

(2) The United States Government even stopped weapons already paid for when Ethiopia was attacked by Somalia in 1977-78;

(3) The United States was fully responsible for the illegal secession of Eritrea and land locking of Ethiopia with its 80 million people;

(4) The United States Government was behind the sanction imposed by the Security Council of the United Nations against Ethiopia during the conflict with Eritrea in 1998-2000. In that sanction, Eritrea was also included, but that was a dishonest face saving devise, for it was public knowledge that Eritrea was being supplied weapon by sea and over land from Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.     

It is not without reason that I have been highly critical of the Government of the United States (not the people of the United States) due to its underhanded treatment of a friendly country, Ethiopia. The hostility of the United States Government toward Ethiopia is far deeply seated in as much as a proud Black man living in the United States has always been a threat and as a result targeted by White male Americans to this day, so is a proud Black Nation like Ethiopia by the American Government that is at its core insecure suffering from some form of complex. What is tragic is that Feingold and Payne are using hyphenated Ethiopians (Ethiopian-Americans) to promote their destructive agenda camouflaged as if they are doing Ethiopians a favor. Some of such hyphenated individuals hate their Ethiopian root and are ashamed of their national origin.

III. Meles Zenawi and his Government*

A week ago the EPRDF elected its new leadership. Meles Zenawi was elected again as the Chairman of the EPRDF. The EPRDF is now reduced to having only four Parties as its Members. The drastic change in the veteran leaders of the TPLF whose absence in the leadership of the EPRDF is worth noticing suggests a crack in the edifice of invincibility of the EPRDF. Another major disappointment in that last election is the fact of further marginalization of women in political elections. There are hardly any. At any rate, it is not going to be the case that a Diaspora politician riding on a white charger into Addis Ababa and takeover the Government of Ethiopia soon. It seems to me it is going to be a long drawn process for anyone to remove Meles Zenawi from power. The worst thing to happen to Ethiopia is a power vacuum. That must not be allowed. Irresponsible Diaspora politicians support such destructive bills from the Congress of the United States that will simply exasperate the situation by creating civil disorder and prolonged suffering.

It is very essay to pontificate about democracy, the desirability of change, insult the leadership, et cetera. It is completely another matter how to acquire political power and use that power wisely to remove Meles Zenawi from power. What is needed is an approach that will maintain the Sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia while effecting change of leadership in the Government of Ethiopia with minimal turmoil. We all have seen the effects of sudden changes in governments in the 1974 military takeover and the subsequent bloodshed, and in the 1991 overrun by EPRDF and the defeat of the military government of Mengistu. Shouting slogans and insulting Meles Zenawi will not do the job. What is required is mature deliberation among seasoned patriotic Ethiopians to find out some ways out of this mess in order to establish common interest and work from such point to effect peaceful transition of power and set the democratic process in the right direction.

My criticism of Meles Zenawi has nothing to do with my personal feelings about Meles Zenawi or his supporters. Personally, I have a grudging admiration for Meles Zenawi�s tenacity, his skill in manipulating events to shore up his eroding advantages, and his obvious intelligence. But all that is in vain, for he lacks the most desirable characteristic in a great leader�the love of one�s people and country. On the level of political program and achievements of the EPRDF as a team, there are some noteworthy achievements even if punctured with the misguided leadership of Meles Zenawi and his circle of supporters.

Even though the leadership of Meles Zenawi after 1991 proved to be disastrous, it does not tarnish the glorious sacrifices of all those Ethiopians who died fighting against the brutal Government of Mengistu Hailemariam. The singular item that must be acknowledged is the fact that thousands of young Ethiopians from Tygrei as members of the TPLF, along with other Ethiopians from other parts of the country (from Arisi, Bale, Begemder, Gojjam, Harerge, Shoa, Wellega, Wollo et cetera), fought bravely and sacrificed their lives to liberate Ethiopia from the reign of terror of Mengistu Hailemariam. I do not have enough words to express my gratitude to all those truly brave warriors who died for us. Their selfless acts of sacrifice ought to be our guiding light to help us fight the tyranny of anyone rather than constantly fight among each other. No matter who is leading Ethiopia, they are still our heroes and remain our heroes. The other important contribution of the EPRDF, which we all must acknowledge is the fact that hitherto marginalized members of the Ethiopian community were able to sit along their fellow Ethiopians around a platform and discuss issues of national and local concern. Because the enhancement the diversity of Ethiopia and the process of self awareness of the many ethnic groups was handled in a clumsy fashion, such positive platform deteriorated into narrow and destructive ethnic politics divided by language and personal ambitions of such participants.

Although highly placed insiders in the Government of Ethiopia insist in private discussions that Meles Zenawi will leave office in 2010 as he had indicated, it seems to me foolhardy to base one�s judgment on the words of Meles Zenawi. His recent reelection as Chairman of the EPRDF indicates otherwise. Meles Zenawi may not leave office that quietly. Of course, there is some change in the political dynamics within the leadership of the TPLF, for the recent election of the Central Committee Members seems to suggest an undeclared process of solidarity to self perpetuate the entrenched interest of those in power without Meles Zenawi. In other words, there seems to be some form of rearrangement of the �Gebeta� pebbles (to use Meles�s terminology uttered in disapproval in private to close associates about the results of the recent elections of the leadership of the TPLF). However, the creeping ousting of Meles as Prime Minister is not a done deal by a long shot. The goal being the �election� of the next Prime Minister to be from the OPDO, there should have been by now some of kind of circling of the wagons around the possible future leader. There is no such activity, as far as I can tell.  

By peacefully leaving office, even with his loot, Meles would have spared us the agonizing conflict between different political groups for his mantel. He could have allowed some form of transition instituting new leadership for the EPRDF thereby laying the ground work for democratic reform. He could have reinvigorated and installed political programs to help the development of democratic and civic life in Ethiopia since the time of the debacle of 2005. However, Meles is a sitting duck on his own, the power ball has rolled off his hands and is now in the TPLF�s tightly entrenched CC members. I would like to remind him of the types of damages he had caused us all by staying in power for too long. I had posted several times a list of infractions and crimes he committed, the latest being in a challenge of June 25, 2008 in an article titled �Shame on You Meles Zenawi,�The above restatement of the types of failed leadership of Meles Zenawi is not something new for me to write about. I have made such evaluations since 1995 in books and academic papers, and through my Website. The removal of Meles Zenawi from power is the beginning of the liberation of Ethiopia; no question about that. However, our future is dependant how wisely we play our role as part players of the change taking place. If we try to grasp power in a hostile environment with the absurd sentiment of trying to remove �Tygreans� from power, which seems to be the sentiment expressed in a number of websites controlled by Mengistu sympathizers and misguided Mahel Sefaris, we are in for a surprise, and such effort in that direction will backfire and will develop into the creation of a far more committed sectarian power structure and stiff resistance. The devastating error of Kinijit supporters, after the 2005 failed takeover of government, was to lump the general Tygrean population with the regime of Meles Zenawi as one and the same, and attack both as anti-Ethiopian forces. Such error is still being reinforced with the continued assault by narrow ethnicist groups through their radios and websites against Tygreans in general but also against Oromos. The fact of the matter is that some individuals claiming some far fetched �Amhara� identity, although they are Mahel Sefaris, have attacked me and other individuals as ethnicists, in a juvenile outburst of uncouth language, without truly understanding the essence of my essay and the changing political atmosphere in Ethiopia.