February 13, 2004
                    1500 South Fern St., # 623
Arlington, VA 22202

The Honorable                                                                                               701 271 4282

Dr. Condoleezza Rice                                                                           

National Security Advisor

The White House

Washington, DC

 

AN OPEN LETTER

 

Dear Dr. Rice,

 

I am a Senior Ethiopian who has been involved in public affairs as well as in business for a long time. I am deeply concerned about the long-term interests of both the United States and the people of Ethiopia. Our community has prospered and enjoyed freedom and peace in this great country. I believe a good and close relationship between the two people to be a very important element for the progress and development of Ethiopia.

 

The Ethiopian people welcome with great hope President Bush’s interest in Africa and the new foreign policy pronounced last May, to promote the institution of democracy. With this in view and recognizing the geopolitical and strategic importance the US gives to the Horn of Africa; I would like to bring to your attention the precarious political conditions that prevail presently in Ethiopia.  I believe that the peaceful development of Ethiopia is key to the stability of the Horn of Africa and its geopolitical sphere.

 

Twelve years of rule by the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ruling coalition, spearheaded by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), have not provided the country with a democratic system of government and the rule of law.  On the contrary it has remained an ethnic minority regime, led by a small inner-party cabal, loyal to Prime Minister Meles. Mismanagement, incompetence, rampant corruption, blatant abuse of power, violations of human rights and bad governance have been the main traits of the regime. The TPLF, the leading party of the coalition, with many of its long-standing members in prison, is bitterly divided. As a result of this break-up and misdeeds by its cadres, the Meles clique has lost its ethnic power base in Tigray. Presently the mainstay of the regime is not its popularity and the fairness of its rule, but its violent coercion and ethnic political manipulations of the electorate.

 

Politically, both national elections held in the past were rigged. Opposition parties were not allowed to campaign freely around the country. Members of the opposition were, and are still harassed, beaten, jailed and sometimes murdered. Human Rights Watch, January 2004, reports:

"Provincial authorities, including local leaders of political parties allied with the ruling coalition, The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), are often implicated in physical assaults on supporters of registered opposition parties. In 2003, there were unconfirmed reports of such attacks in four regions. In one instance, the local police accompanied the attackers.

 

The opposition parties are not allowed to use the public media, which is a state monopoly, neither are they permitted to establish their own. The ethnic-based federal structure is dysfunctional and an abysmal failure.  In the first place it was never designed to serve best the needs of the population, but to serve as political instrument to maintain the primacy of the TPLF and its surrogate ethnic political allies.  It was imposed from the top by political factions, and has never had a massive grass root support.  Twelve years of misrule and bad governance have made it even less appealing, than what is claimed by its elitist leaders. Actually, the ethnic federal system has proven to be unmanageable. The regime had to promulgate a new law empowering it to use the Police and the Armed Forces, in cases of human rights violations and civil unrest in the federal states.

 

A fact that has become glaringly evident is that the regime has failed to endow the country with an honest and efficient democratic governance. Apart for a few clever but inexperienced people at the top, including the Prime Minister, the principal qualification required to hold any public office is absolute loyalty to the ruling clique, over any professional skill and experience. Thus, all the ethnic-clique based cadres forming the administration down the line are mostly incompetent, inefficient, self-serving and corrupt. Even with the best of intentions, the dependency of the regime on such type of political and administrative cadres, rules out any improvement of its performance. It is also obvious that a Prime Minister who hides behind a security wall, and does not dare to show himself in public for the past twelve years, does not have the respect and trust of the people. He lacks the minimum attributes and statures that qualify a popular and visionary leader.

 

I am not denying that many developmental projects have been initiated, but that their implementation has been faulty, some because of absorptive incapacity, others because of mismanagement, corruption and diversion of resources. Compared to the political support and financial resources (over a billion dollars p/y, for twelve years) invested by the US and Donor Countries to sustain the regime, the results have been dismal and far from solving the basic problems of the country.  Poverty, famine, disease, massive unemployment, nepotism and crony-capitalism have made the country unstable, and prone to future crisis.

 

Neither, can the regime carry out an effective anti-terrorist campaign. Soon after it took power, the Meles regime established diplomatic relations with Iraq, Syria and Iran and thereby fostered the introduction of radical Muslim groups into Ethiopia. Thus, for the past twelve years extremist Muslim groups, officially sponsored by Iran and Wahabis by the Saudis, have had a free hand in Ethiopia, where they claim to have trained a “jehadist” army of five to seven thousand men. Islam in Ethiopia dates thirteen centuries, and Muslims have lived in peace and harmony with other religions throughout this time.  Presently Ethiopian Muslims, who belong to other sects, have been harassed, beaten and their Mosques burnt, by extremists and Wahabists supported by Iranian and Saudi funds. While the US-Ethiopian anti-terrorist collaboration is focused mainly on military action against identifiable armed groups, the spreading activity of the extremists is amongst the population at large where the regime has little influence. Due to these conditions, which the regime has allowed to develop, and its past close relations with these rogue states, it is doubtful that the Meles clique can deal successfully against the terrorists’ threat at home and in the Horn. The people of Ethiopia are averse to terrorism religious or otherwise, and no democratic Ethiopia will tolerate such movements in the future. 

 

In view of the above I believe that the US interests and those of the Ethiopian people will be best served, if US policy is addressed towards establishing a genuine and legitimate democratic system of government in Ethiopia, instead of sustaining a minority dictatorship that is most unpopular. Whatever last hour cosmetic changes the Meles regime will make towards democratization, it will be to diffuse the pressure from the international community and from the opposition inside the country, There is no way for a regime, constituted by a minority within a minority, to keep power in a free and fair elections, short of cheating and violence.  We believe firmly that the present rule by a minor political gang cannot continue, and that the country will face a major crisis sooner than later

 

President Bush was right in saying that, after fifty years of supporting unpopular regimes, the US has gained nothing but enemies.  In fact, most of the anti-American manifestations that are seen around the world are expressions of pent up resentment of the support provided by US administrations to totalitarian regimes rather than a genuine hostility toward the US - a country more admired than feared by most people worldwide.  If an eight-year term is considered sufficient for a US President, a twelve-year tenure is more than enough for a petty dictator.

 

Therefore, the national elections to be held in Ethiopia in 2005, would be a proper occasion for the US to take a lead in this matter, and make sure that these elections will be conducted fairly and honestly, with the full participation of all opposition parties inside and outside the country, thereby assuring a peaceful and orderly transition to a democratic governance. These elections being a defining factor for the future of the country, we would like to suggest the setting-up, as of now, of a US-Ethiopian Ad-hoc Committee composed of prominent Americans, knowledgeable of the country, and similarly qualified Ethiopians to monitor closely the free and fair conduct of the elections. The Election Board should also be reconstituted and its composition changed to represent an independent cross-section of the electorate. International observers should also be in place when the campaign begins and when the coercion and harassment on the electorate is exercised, rather than at the last moment when the balloting is done.  The recently ‘Vagrancy Law’ promulgated by the regime, is another instrument of oppression that has no legal or social justification. In a country where unemployment is over sixty percent anybody can qualify as vagrant and be subject to persecution.  Another rigged-up election promises nothing but serious unrest and rebellion, with dire consequences for the country and the region of the Horn.

 

There are many qualified Ethiopians from varied ethnic origins, who have stayed away from the ongoing political fray, and have not been involved in the mayhem of the past thirty years.  Given the right support, such a multi-ethnic group can be a balancing and conciliatory factor, to bring about harmony amongst contending factions. Several of these individuals have been involved in Ethiopian affairs and in high-level public service for many years. In a year when we are celebrating the centennial of US-Ethiopia relations, the people of Ethiopia are looking for your support to bring about a sustainable democracy, just peace and stability to the region.  Needless to say, this outcome would greatly serve the enduring mutual interests of the two countries.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Ambassador Imru Zelleke (Ret.)

(Former Ambassador of Ethiopia)