LETTER

Open Letter To Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
By Girma Yohannes
Nov 5, 2003
YES! PRIME MINISTER MELES,

Recently you were asked by IRIN the questions that many Ethiopians have been asking for the past three years. Anyone who wants to make sense out of your answer is like to conclude that you are still suffering from chronic mental illness.

“When the border decision was announced in April 2002 Ethiopia was very quick to say it had got everything it wanted. The day the decision was handed down your chief diplomat declared victory and asked the Ethiopian people to come out to the street and celebrate the victory. You and your associates hold conferences after conferences to explaining the commission’s decision was indeed in favor of Ethiopia. Why are you rejecting parts of the agreement at this moment in time? Now you are saying that ‘well justice and fairness will have to prevail. Until two months ago you and your associates were willing and ready to accept the commission’s as it is. Are you suggesting that you and your chief diplomat just discover and learned about the commission’s verdict being unjust, unfair and partial? Or just have realized that the Ethiopian people are not after all stupid enough to be fooled by your deceptive and misleading claims regarding their border where it begins and ends? Or they are illiterate and could not read English and understand what the commission’s decision was?

To the amusement of the Ethiopian people and indeed to the international community you are now saying that: “When we were told Asmara is not Ethiopian, when we were told Assab is not Ethiopian we said - sure, if the Eritrean people think that Assab is Eritrea and not Ethiopia, that’s all right. And we went to Asmara and celebrated with the Eritreans the independence of Eritrea. Do you rely understand what you are saying Prim Minister? Can you for change be honest and when the Ethiopian people have said that when they were asked Asmaraa and Assab was not Ethiopian and - sure, if the Eritrean people think that Assab is Eritrea and not Ethiopia, that’s all right? You have also claimed that: ‘According to the latest rendition of the Boundary Commission, Badme would be 800 meters inside Eritrea. What’s 800 meters in a country as big as Ethiopia? What’s 800 meters compared to what we willingly and happily gave up as Eritrea? It’s nothing. Prime Minister what are you saying? Are you saying that the commission has no right to make such decision? If this is what you are trying to imply, then the Ethiopian people will agree with you. The commission and its mandate given by you were illegal and its decision not binding. But this is not what you are saying, rather issuing a plea to your counter part in Asmara to stop from insisting on its claim over the “800 meters godforsaken village’. Or else you could lose all the territories that I had willingly and happily gave you and celebrated with you the independence of Eritrea.

Based on your understanding and analogy: ‘Badme is not bigger than Asmara. Badme is not more important than Assab by any stretch of the imagination. It is some godforsaken village. So it’s not about territory. Then what is it? At least the Ethiopian people deserve to know the reasons they are fighting for. You have noted that ‘ it’s 800 meters, which we are told is something it has never been, and something that it will never be. That’s the point. That’s the crux of the matter. Are you saying the Ethio-Eritrean conflict that had claimed over one hundred thousand lives was based on 800 meters some godforsaken village? So for Ethiopia, what’s the bottom line? The bottom line is peace; we don’t want any mess-ups here’.

What do you mean by peace? For the past three years you have been talking about peace and development. But no one is certain what you rely mean by peace and development, since Ethiopia is plagued with chronic poverty and political instability and your economic and foreign policies are marked by failure than success.

Mr. Prime Minister, your inability to distinguish between facts and myth and misleading characteristic is ‘the crux of the problem between the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Now you are suggesting that the obstacle to durable peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea is the commission’s attitude and its determination to act as plaintiff and advocate on behalf of Eritrea. That well may be the case, but was not these what you hand in mind when you had willfully decided to sign the Algiers Agreement. For those who are closely and fully acquainted with your personality what you are now saying and doing is not surprising. You have never been known for taking responsibility for your own action and deed. You had always blamed others for your own mistakes and failures. You see yourself doing all the right things, while the rest of the world is misguided and wrong. You see your self as the only one who understands, international law, the principles and cultures of democracy and justice. You and your cheerleaders may not recognize the type of behavior that you have continued to exhibit, but you can be assured that it is a clear manifestation of mental disorder.

It is your own prerogative to seek or not seek for some kind of psychiatric treatment, but after having carefully read your response and reasoning with keen interests, I am convinced than ever that you are suffering from mental disorder that is being manifested by hallucination and illusion.

You have been asked a strait forward question regarding you regime by a close international observer. “One of the opposition parties has called for an independent national electoral board for the 2005 elections. Is that something we are likely to see? The head of the electoral commission is the president of the Supreme Court. So if they want to bring somebody more independent than the president of the Supreme Court to the board, then let them think of it. Yes, but who names that board? It’s the parliament. Which is controlled by the [ruling] EPRDF. The majority parties, in every parliamentary democracy that I know of, control all parliaments. And what are your futures plans. How long do you see yourself as prime minister? Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”

The parliamentary electoral process and judicial system under Emperor Haileselassie and its predecessor were by far democratic and representative than the Ethiopian people have under your leadership. To refresh your memory, the Tigrean people had fought hard and long war for justices, economic prosperity and peace, and for such ideal tens of thousands of their children gave their lives. They had given you every thing that was humanly possible to give, including their lives. But the crux of the matter is you and your associates have betrayed the trust that they have had placed on you. As commander in chief of the Ethiopian army you had failed to fulfill your command and control responsibilities. You made a conscious decision to defend and protect the fighting troops of the enemy. If there were functioning parliament and an independent judiciary, you and your associates would have been impeached and charged for treason three years ago. No commander in chief of an army with his right mind orders his troop to stop defending themselves in a middle of heated battle without assuring a cease-fire from the other side of the fighting army. You could not help it while the armies of your motherland being annihilated and humiliated by the forces that you command and you had to do something about it. And you did and both the parliament and the judiciary bodies that you continue to control and command said little or nothing. You may try to hide from such hideous crime, but you can be sure that you will never escape from the Ethiopian people.

Mr. Prime Minister you are a man of many words and faces like a chameleon who have failed to see and recognize that true power lies not in the will to deceive and intimidate, but in the ability to inspire and led. Instead of reasoning with those with whom you disagree, you continued to demand obedience through threat and recrimination. Instead of isolating and fighting against the enemy and defending the interests of the nation that you are ruling you have decided to support the enemy who seeks nothing but its total destruction.

Prime Minister, no government is permanent, but the legacy it leaves behind is one of a difficult challenge for the succeeding generation to overcome. How long you are going to live or stay in power is the least worry and concern of the Ethiopian people. But your drive and motto to change the face of Ethiopia is humiliating and no single Ethiopian who loves his country should seat and watch while his country is being humiliated by your under taking. .

Mr. Prime Minister, save the nation from the unnecessary diplomatic, political, economic and social agony. Perhaps, reason will somehow still prevail upon you and your self-serving associates and will do the right thing by resigning. Then the Ethiopian people may forgive and even give you the benefit of the doubt that your acts and intentions were/are motivated by the desire to ensure their long and short economic, political and social interests.

Thanks to the modern information technology there is no secret that can only remain between you and your confidantes, as you would like it to be. There is clear evidence that you have been stashing away millions of dollars to banks in England, the United States, including the millions of dollars that you have recently transferred and deposited in the Portuguese Banks. The money that you and your associate have continued to stash away is stolen from the hungry and dying children of Ethiopia and there is nothing-worst crime than this. Therefore, my humble suggestion to you and you close confidantes is that you resign and leave the country and if you can enjoy the monies that you have stashed away, while you have the chance to do so.

If you truly believe in political dialogues, you ought to open the door and begin and start with the Ethiopian people, including with your former associates. Such consideration is the first step and the beginning towards the right direction. The alternative options that you have left at this time are:

Prime Minister, if you cannot hack it, please it is over due that you pack it. Then may the Lord will help the people of Ethiopia in the troubled days ahead and may they somehow recapture the vision and wisdom and overcome which your leadership eludes on them and their country. If not, I wish you all the best of luck with your next deceptive political Schemes.

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