Of Murders, Kidnapings, etc...

Last week, we observed yet another surreal drama in the life of the people of Ethiopia play out. Incredible events unfolded across the country as ordinary people came face to face with their government and the government greeted them with gun shots, beatings, imprisonment and, in a new twist, kidnappings. The ugliness of the Ethiopian landscape which we saw last week was only surpassed by the reaction of Meles and the United State Government -- his primary sponsor.

The body of a week’s worth of work of the man Tony Blair calls “a new kind of African leader” consisted of: (1) killing a dozen or so boys and girls but also numerous innocent men and women first in Addis and then across the country, (2) detaining nearly the entire leadership of the largest opposition party, the editors and publishers of the private papers and the leaders of civil society organizations, (3) beating the detained leaders, holding them incommunicado and denying them access to medical care, even to their prescriptions, and finally (4) kidnapping family members of those political and civic leaders who have eluded capture and are in hiding and offering to exchange them for the wanted leaders.

Thanks to the information revolution, all of this is going on in full view of the entire world—not behind closed doors or behind an iron curtain of the sort they have in North Korea. So what did the world say? How did the citizens and governments of this global village react? Ethiopia is, after all, part of the global village. Or is it?

This is a particularly important question for two reasons. First, from day one (1991), Meles had always sought to be in good standing with the west in general but specially with the United States. Now that he has attained such a hallowed position in western power circles as a new kind of African democrat, keeping that standing and maintaining the appearance is important to his ego and to his goal of staying in power indefinitely. Second, the strategists of the opposition long ago concluded that dismantling Meles’ fake democratic mask and striping him of the unwarranted support he receives from western democracies can be a usefull tactical manuver. Consequently, the reaction of the world, but specially that of the United States, was important for Meles and for the opposition.

The first official reaction from the United States came from Sean McCormack, spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State. In his briefings on November 2nd, a day after Meles’s murderous spree began, speaking for the government of the United States, McCormack told the assembled reporters that:

“We deplore the use of violence and the deliberate and synical attempt to invoke violence in a misguided attempt to resolve political differences. We call on the opposition to refrain from inciting civil disobedience during this time of heightened tension.”

The statement was stunning in its unusual undiplomatic clarity and brevity. It was devastating in its attack of the people of Ethiopia for aspiring to the innocent ideal of democracy. It was a complete and an unconditional endorsement of what Meles had done. Never mind that he had also had a similar episode of street killings some four months earlier over this same election. Never mind that the confrontation between the people and their government was still unfolding. The Ethiopian people were told that to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right of assembly in a peaceful manner was to provoke the other side into violence. The opposition was told that a call for a stay at home strike was a cynical and deplorable attempt to incite the other side into violence. Meles was told to go for broke. And for the rest of the week he did.

The continued killings in Addis did not rate any mention at the November 3rd press briefings McCormack gave at the State Department. When the issue resurfaced in the November 4th briefings, McCormack stated that the U.S. continues to urge both the government and the opposition “to resolve whatever differences they may have through peaceful means”. But he continued to insinuate that the guilty party was the opposition. He reported that “it furthers no one's cause to try to manipulate situations in order to provoke a violent reaction. We think that peaceful dialogue is the way to resolve what is in fact a political issue.” I rate this as less abrasive and less dismissing of the opposition but still pointing the finger of guilt in their direction. He also said that “anybody who might have been arrested in these demonstrations for a political reason should be released immediately (and those) accused of acts of violence in the demonstrations (should be) granted the full rights under the judicial system that they have a speedy hearing of their cases and that those cases proceed in a transparent manner.” While this is a further lowering of the rhetoric against the opposition, what followed was an even more interesting interjection. McCormack reported that “Under Secretary Burns reiterated our call to establish an independent commission and investigate the demonstrations, including those on June 8th, in which dozens of people were killed.”

Of course by then the carnage had spread to the rest of the country. Perhaps that is what gave Washington pause. Perhaps Washington had bought into Meles’s lies that the opposition’s support is limited just to Addis Ababa. The foreign press was actually calling Addis the opposition strong hold. It is likely that the spread of the resistance to Awassa in the South and Bahir Dar, Gonder and Dessie in the North and Dire Dawa in the East changed Washington’s mind. Whatever the cause, that last one – call for an independent commission to investigate these killings as well as the killings of June 8th -- was a definite change.

As though trying to set some sort of record, the killings continued. After the 3rd, the killings took place primarily outside of Addis. If words mean anything, the international community was finally beginning to pay attention to Ethiopia’s travails. First it was Europe alone that had it right. But soon, the U.S. joined the EU in a declaring "We urgently call upon all political parties to desist from further violence and to abide by the rule of law,” Never mind that one side engages in violence with heavily armed storm troopers, armored personnel carriers and snipers and the other side engages in violence by refusing to accept the authority of a tyrant. At the worst, you might have kids throwing stones. But, the joint statement was still progress in that it is tacitly asking the murderers to stop murdering.

Yet I must admit that I felt a small knot in my belly when I read that last part about abiding by the rule of law. Those who authored that declaration knew that one side makes the law on the fly and flaunts the law when it does not like it. The other side fears nothing more than the law. So, I was not sure if that statement was not meant to provide another cover for their favorite African leader.

The joint declaration also backs McCormack’s call for “An independent investigation of the deaths and injuries arising from recent events and the events in June” but left it to Meles (I assume) to establish the independent commission. That of course is pure cynicism. Of course the difficult process issues were left unsaid. Who is to appoint this independent body and who is to take part in it? What and who is to be investigated when the answer is already known. On May 16, one person assumed command of all security forces, mapped out the deployment of these forces and decided on the rules of engagement. The rules of engagement on June 8 and during the first week of November amounted to shoot for maximum impact. Shoot to kill. Shoot live ammo. Forget the soft stuff such as crowd control. The objective was to intimidate and cow-down the population. So what is there to investigate? Perhaps it is to find an escape goat. On the aftermath of the June killings, the Federal Police Commissioner had meant to provide a helpful explanation when he reported that the Agazi army was not trained in crowed control and hence the death. But, alas, that implied that Meles should not have had the army play police and so he was told to be quiet. So I must ask what poor soul is going to be dirtied by this fake exercise that Meles will set up which has a predetermined outcome?

Then came word from Meles himself. He was caught in the glare of European media and forced to answer questions about these killings. His response was vintage Meles. "It was not a normal demonstration," Meles said while attending a conference convened by German President Horst Koehler. "And I don't want to justify it when policemen get in a panic, but I can understand it when there are people throwing hand grenades and using guns."

Never mind that the last part about throwing grenades and using guns is entirely made up, but what kind of police force do we have here? So according to Meles the police panicked on June 8th. They panicked in the Merkato and Piassa on the 2nd of November. They panicked all across Addis on the 3rd. They panicked in Addis and Bahir Dar on the 4th. They panicked in Debre Markos, Gonder, and Dessie, and Dire Dawa, and Awassa and Arba Minich on the 5th. They Panicked in Debre Birhan on the 6th. They are panicking in Dangila and Northern Gonder today. They may panic yet again all over Ethiopia tomorrow and the day after.

What kind of a police force do we have here, any way? Well of course we don’t have a police force trained in crowd control. We did not have a police force deployed at all. What we have instead is an army trained to dispense maximum punishment on the enemy. This army has been set on its own people. What we have is what the ever so clever Meles set to motion. The army was told that the enemy is no longer at the border but among us. The enemy is not an alien people but their veryown brothers who have turned treasonous. The army was then ordered to do what they were trained for…engage the enemy for maximum effect…shoot live bullets into crowds because the crowd is the enemy.

Of course it was not a normal demonstration. There was never a demonstration at all but ordinary people going about their ordinary daily chores provoked into confrontation so that the ever so clever Meles could use maximum force to intimidate the people not to take part in a demonstration which was scheduled for sometime in the future.

And what is this thing about "We regret the death but it was not a normal demonstration"? Does he regret the loss life? Heck, no! To him all life is expendable in the pursuit of absolute power. One only need to go back and view that horrendous interview he gave the BBC’s Hard Talk program. The reporter tried really hard to get this ever so clever man to express remorse at the loss of life. Only on the very last prodding did he notice how incredulous the reporter was at his refusal to express remorse at the loss of life. Well he has learned his lessons. They say he is a quick study. So he said “we regret the death”. Note that he did not say I regret but we regret as in we the people or we the party or we the government. Furthermore, note that he did not just say “we regret”. No, no, no. “We regret…but it was not a normal demonstration”. In his mind this killing spree that has been going on for 6 days and counting is justifiable because this was not a “normal demonstration”.

What saddens me is that the masses of people, farmers from Gore to Gode merchants of Mekelle to Moyale had actually finally bought into the alien notion that democracy is both a desirable and attainable arrangement for organizing public life in Ethiopia. The other casualty of Meles’s killing spree is the slow death of hope and of faith in the possibilities of a democratic order.