German leader urged to speak with Ethiopian opposition
By Kahsay Berhe and Tesfay Atsebaha
February 12, 2004

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His Excellency Mr. Gerhard Schroeder
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Platz der Republik
Berlin
Cologne and Muenster

Dear Mr. Federal Chancellor,

We write you this letter as German citizens of Ethiopian origin. We politely ask you to use your influence for the promotion of human rights and democracy as well as for the wellbeing of the citizens of this country in your trip to Ethiopia. We were companions of the current Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during the armed struggle against the military regime, and both of us have worked full time for thirteen years for the TPLF, the Tigrayan organisation which dominates the current Ethiopian government of the EPRDF, until we arrived at the conviction, that all chances were exhausted for a development of this front and its political arm the MLLT to a democratic organisation, as internal efforts towards freedom of speech and democracy became dangerous for their initiators. We politely appeal to you therefore:

- To get a balanced and objective informmation about the development of democracy and the obstacles to the harmonious existence of the people of Ethiopia.

- To speak with the leadership of the Etthiopian opposition in Addis Abeba, the UEDF, United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, in which 15 organisations formed a front to co-ordinate their peaceful struggle.

- To speak with the human rights organissation, Ethiopian human Rights Council.

- To meet Dr. Negasso Gidada, the formerr president of Ethiopia or get information from him. He lives at present almost like a prisoner and complains about his inability to get the necessary and regular medical control of his heart problems. You could certainly help Dr. Gidada easily, because Meles would be happy to please you with the harmless gesture of allowing a patient to be treated.

We are sending you a memorandum with background information, in which we clarify the internal development in the years of the armed struggle before the take-over of power by Meles to portray the person as we know him as well as his aims and deeds. We are ready to give more detailed information, in case it is necessary and hope for your support for the People of Ethiopia.

Sincerely yours,

Kahsay Berhe (Münster) email: Bkahsay@aol.com and
Tesfay Asbeha, (Cologne) email: tesfaya@web.de

Memorandum attached to the letter to Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

Who is reigning over Ethiopia?

During the armed struggle, Meles possessed all power, executive, legislative and judicial as a leader of the Tigray People's Liberation front (TPLF) and made an excessive use of this power to murder many defenceless and innocent people. He made use of the lack of transparency and accountability in the organisation to hide his atrocities, that we, after more than 20 years, still learn about the murder of relatives, friends, comrade-in-arms, neighbours, acquaintances till now. According to the data we have collected so far, the TPLF has in many places of Tigray murdered four to five times more people than the military government.

The TPLF which committed heinous crimes for 16 years in Tigray is continuing these crimes throughout Ethiopia since1991. The regime initiated a legal process accusing members of the military government for committing a crime against humanity etc. But the process cannot promote justice as long as it demonstrates that criminals are accused only then, if they are no longer in power. As the incumbent regime is continuously committing crimes against humanity, it is nullifying even the effect of punishment as a deterrent and thereby hindering the rule of law and the transition to democracy.

The most important posts of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as well as the ministries especially for defence and internal security are fully controlled by the TPLF. Also here, in Europe, the most important Ethiopian Embassies to the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany are occupied by the TPLF. All Ethiopian Embassies in the rich industrial countries, are officially or unofficially controlled by the cadres of Meles. The composition of many Ethiopian embassies is such that they do not look like representations of Ethiopia, but rather only like organisational offices of the TPLF. Such a blatant proportion in the allocation of key positions between rulers and the oppressed illustrates the distorted situation in Ethiopia and is likely to lead to a bitter struggle.

A tyrant who deceives donors and deprives famine victims of emergency aid

Here is a concrete and verifiable example, to show how aid was withheld from the hungry by the TPLF. The TPLF, through its quasi-NGO, REST (Relief Society of Tigray) appealed in 1985 to the donors to give cash instead of food aid to the famished. Accordingly, project proposals for "internal purchase" were prepared and the donors asked to send their own personnel, in order to buy grain from merchants A cadre of Meles was camouflaged as a merchant to show the donors TPLF grain as his own and received the money for the TPLF, without the intention of distributing the grain.

Max Peberdy in his book:"TIGRAY: ETHIOPIA`S UNTOLD STORY", Sept./Oct.1985, London, with a forward by Dr. Solomon Inquay, the speaker of parliament in Tigray now) writes:

The coalition partners of the TPLF are its own POWs

Although Meles portrays the government of the EPRDF as a coalition of different organisations, the fact is that the founding members of these organisations were picked from prisoners of war by Meles and organised to serve him as puppets. One such organisation is the ANDM, which evolved from a group of the EPRP which surrendered itself to the TPLF in 1980 under a situation of war. The TPLF indoctrinated the POWs, purged independent-minded individuals and used the rest under the name "Ethiopian People`s Democratic Movement (EPDM)" to undertake military activities beyond Tigray. The name EPDM was changed to Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) to create the impression that the Amahras (second largest ethnic group after the Oromos) were represented in a coalition government. The OPDO, formed in 1990, is also a creature of Meles from POWs of the TPLF and EPLF to cheat the Oromos. The OPDO was later joined by Dr. Negasso Gidada.

Dr. Negasso Gidada, with whom we worked as refugees in Germany had probably underestimated the control of the OPDO by Meles He had to adjust his actions to the wishes of Meles in the beginning, but when he later on showed an admirable civil courage by rightly comparing Meles with his predecessor, Megistu Hailemariam, he was systematically pushed out of his organisation and office. He is living now almost as a prisoner. As an exile politician, who became a member of a ready-made organisation, he had no organised basis.

The politics of "divide and rule" on the basis of ethnicity is endangering the Cohesion of Ethiopians

Meles is exploiting the ethnic diversity of the people of Ethiopia for his policy of divide and rule and endangering the existence of the country. People who have always been living together peacefully are being emotionalised to take up arms against each other with the policy of ethnic exclusiveness. The regime is creating ethnic antagonism on the one hand, and massacring those whom it antagonised on the other. The most recent massacre took place in Gambella and its surrounding areas in which more than 400 people of the Anauk Ethiopians were butchered by government forces on 13 and 24 December 2003. Thousands more have fled to the Sudan. This ethnic policy has already caused bloodshed between the Nuer and the Anuaks in Gambella, between the Amharas and the Oromos in Wellega, between the Oromos and the Somalis in Hararghe, between the Amharas and the Afars as well as the Afars and the Issas in Wollo. Therefore, the ethnic policy of the regime is causing an immense damage to the people in the form of loss of life and property; it is denying the people the freedom of movement; it is stagnating the economy and the markets and it is blocking trade between and the integrated growth of the regions.

Meles is trying to present his ethnic policy as the right to self determination, as decentralisation and devolution of power. A Stalinist forced organisation and control is rather the fact, which is omnipresent in Ethiopia. The peasant, women, youth, cadre, militia etc. organisations are part and parcel of the bureaucracy and mechanisms of control. The army, the police and the administrative organs down to village level are branches of the ruling party. Referring to the control system, Pastor Hasselblatt called Tigray under the TPLF "an Orwell State" more than a decade ago. Now, this description has become applicable to the whole of Ethiopia.

The Tyrant has absolute power, the centralisation is suffocating and the talk about self determination is simply an empty phrase. In addition to this, Ethiopian farmers have legally, only use right and no ownership right of the fields they plough, a fact which makes the farmers vulnerable to the manipulation and intimidation by the regime.

Giving due consideration to the facts explained above, Meles as a mass murderer does not qualify for an alliance against terror, democracy and the rule of law. As a tyrant, who deprives famine victims of emergency aid and cheats donors, he is harmful for the struggle against famine. As a politician, who exploits ethnic diversity for his policy of divide and rule, he is a danger to the existence of Ethiopia as a state.

Conclusion

How can the Ethiopian people be supported? By supporting that:

• The people are able to elect their government without bloodshed;
• The Ethiopian opposition parties, which have formed a common front, the UEDF and which have abandoned armed struggle as well as other political organisations, like the OLF are allowed to participate in the formulation of the election law and modalities. These organisations should further be guaranteed safety, allowed to organise their supporters as soon as possible and use their fair share of the mass media to address the voters;
• The election committee has to be formed from neutral citizens. Local and international election observers should be acceptable to all competing parties.

As Meles will strive to appear statesmanlike and a convinced democrat in expectation of foreign support, he will not reject these demands out right, but rather later concoct pretexts to block the implementation of these demands. However, his promise would be the first step in the right direction, in order to be able to subsequently gauge him by his own words.