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Joseph M. Ciuffini February 24, 2003 The Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House London Honored Members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, As a returned United States Peace Corps volunteer who lived and worked in Ethiopia many years ago and have continued to be current with the political, cultural and religious affairs of the country, it is with deep regret and sorrow that I learned of your invitation to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi to speak to your assembly. Further, the topic of the evening is a far stretch for a man who has over the last 12 years in a self-appointed office, reduced the private sector investment by a factor of 10! Development has taken a back burner for a man in charge of millions of dollars that have somehow gotten to Ethiopia but have had little or no impact on improving the life of Ethiopians. They are now earning approximately $120 per annum as they did 20 years ago! Corruption, bad governance, poorly thought out and intentionally opaque policies have rendered many opportunities for Ethiopians null and void. Thus, the levels of poverty continue and in many cases, with the extended HIV/AIDs epidemic, have created a country of declining production and most importantly, declining hope. Other Ethiopians will have posted a number of facts about Meles Zenawi that are fully documented. You may be surprised by the litany of flagrant and harmful actions by the Prime Minister, but make no mistake, they are his and his cadres work. Meles Zenawi's hands have been covered by the blood of many thousand Ethiopians and more blood will continue to wash over his hands in the coming years unless people like yourself decide to stop playing “gracious diplomat” with the murderous dictator and violator of human rights. The Ethiopian people cannot cast this albatross from their necks as they are under his guns-in the streets, at the voting polls, in the churches, in the schools and as of a few months ago a plan was put in place to have “government spies” in various countries of the world 'watch over' the Ethiopians in the diaspora. England is high on that spies list. Attached are two articles that will help you understand the long standing problem of Meles Zenawi (who has from time to time used the name Legesse Zenawi and “Abebe”). Therefore, it is with great hope that I ask you to decide to the correct and honorable action of denying the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, a platform for his continuing sham of democracy and democratic lip-service. Respectfully,
Joseph M. Ciuffini
ATTACHMENTS
Article #1 Ethiopia: Timeline of Key Events and Assaults on Academic Freedom Since 1991 Note: This timeline is part of a larger publication of the Human Rights Watch “Lessons in Repression: Violations of Academic Freedom in Ethiopia” January 2003 Vol. 15, No. 2 (A) ETHIOPIA: TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS AND ASSAULTS ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM SINCE 1991. 1991 – The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) toppled the Derg military regime which had been responsible for the Red Terror, ending a decade of civil war and promising freedom and respect for human rights. 1992 – The EPRDF government began to target the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA) for harassment after the association suggested reforms to the educational system. In the years to come, government tactics would include repeated discrimination against and arbitrary arrests of ETA leaders and sympathizers, assassination of a leading member in 1997, and confiscation of the organization's assets. January 4, 1993 – Students at Addis Ababa University (AAU) took to the streets in protest of a planned referendum on Eritrean independence. Security forces fired live ammunition into the crowd of unarmed students and beat and arrested large numbers of students. April 1993 – AAU summarily dismissed more than forty professors who had been critical of the government. Several of them have since been repeated victims of arbitrary arrest and intimidation. Ten years later, intellectuals continue to cite the "chilling effect" these firings have had on academic freedom. 1996 – Arrests of ETA leaders Shimalis Zewdie and Dr. Taye Woldesmayat. May 1997 – Assefa Maru, acting director of the ETA, gunned down by police. No proper investigation of the killing has ensued. 1998 - 2000 – Border war with Eritrea. February - March 2000 – Arrests of Oromo AAU students protesting government failure to extinguish forest fires. High school students also protested; one was killed and up to 300 were arrested. October 2000 – Oromo students protested the move of the capital of Oromia state from Addis Ababa to Nazret, leading to the arrests of at least four students. December 2000 – Police responded violently to students protesting living conditions at Awassa Teachers College. Students were beaten and arrested. December 20, 2000 – AAU students were arrested and beaten after a fight erupted when a Tigrean student used the word “galla”, a derogatory word for Oromos. A series of related incidents followed in colleges and universities across the country. April 2001 – AAU students went on strike demanding academic freedom, including the rights to organize a student union and publish a student newspaper and removal of armed uniformed police from campus. Government forces killed some forty students and other civilians and arrested thousands, some of whom were tortured. High school, college, and university students around the country demonstrated in solidarity, and police responded to these demonstrations with excessive violence as well. September 2001 – Government police on AAU campus were replaced by private security guards. The government did not remove other barriers to freedom of association and expression for members of the university community. February 2002 - Government security forces disrupted an ETA conference on education for all and HIV/AIDS. More than forty teachers were arrested for attending the meeting. March 11, 2002 – Minority groups clashed with local officials in Tepi over political rights leading to the deaths of at least eighteen civilians and one official. In the following days more than one hundred were killed, several villages reportedly were razed to the ground on the order of local authorities, and nearly one thousand civilians were arrested. March 2002 – Oromia high school students protested against economic and educational policies. Security forces killed five students, wounded others, and arrested hundreds. April 2002 – Students returned to AAU one year after the campus strike, agreeing to drop their demands for academic freedom. May 24, 2002 – Government forces killed seventeen civilians protesting change in the administrative status of Awassa. July - August 2002 – All teachers and university instructors underwent a mandatory seminar on “capacity building” at which government officials instructed them to teach their students to be good cadres and to disassociate themselves from the ETA. December 2002 – Top administrators at AAU and at least five professors resigned after complaining that the government was using performance evaluations to interfere with university autonomy. The government had yet to promulgate a university charter granting the university autonomy despite repeated promises to do so since coming to power in 1991.
Article #2 PM Meles' “Anti-Corruption” Campaign One Year Later: What has it really “achieved”? Note: 'Justice in Ethiopia' is a website that is attempting to provide the judiciary separation and freedom from the whims and capricious nature of the Prime Minister's Office in Ethiopia. While many of the articles are in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopians, a few key articles will provide detail on the difference between the Prime Ministers lip-service to anti-corruption and his actual manipulation of and commission of criminal acts against Ethiopians. The article noted above explores the Anti-Corruption Campaign one year later and the involvement of the Prime Minister and his office in the total denial of due process of law. Unfortunately, this also details the tremendous difficulties that the Ethiopian Courts face in attempting to carry out the rule of law and support of the respect of human rights of people charged with criminal activity. Definitely a long article but Ethiopians know the story and can be called upon to explain in more detail the duplicitous nature of the Prime Minister, his party and his government. The Prime Minister's party is known as the TPLF (Tigrean People's Liberation Front) but is more correctly known by its actions, “The People Live in Fear”.
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