By Sophia Tesfamariam
Nov 18, 2006 — Democratic Congressman Donald Payne, a member of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations and Congressman Michael Honda, founder and Chair of the Congressional Ethiopia and Ethiopian American Caucus held a hearing on 16 November 2006 to listen to members of the Ethiopian Commission Inquiry. This was a commission that was established in Ethiopia to review the violence in the post-election period after May 2005. Two members of the Commission, Frehiwot Samuel and Mitiku Teshome were present during the hearing. Also present were Birhanu Tsigu formerly with the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, and Lynn Fredriksson of Amnesty International. It was rainy day in Washington, but the hearing room was filled to capacity. I got there early, so I was lucky to be sitting through the over 3-hour long hearing.
The hearing started with a brief statement from Congressman Payne. He told the audience that he had always maintained that the minority regime in Ethiopia had used excessive force in June and November of 2006 and said “those who gave the orders and those who carried out the orders must be held accountable”. As he introduced the two members of the Commission, he told us that there were two other witnesses that were supposed to come and testify at this hearing.
Those of us who have been following developments in Ethiopia have read and heard about the Ethiopian teenager, Alem Zuria from Gulele, whose mother Itenesh Yimam was murdered in cold blood as she pleaded with Meles security forces to free her husband, who was elected to Addis Ababa’s City Council and had been arrested. We have all heard Alem Zuria’s interview with Voice of America (VoA) and felt her pain and desperation. Mr. Payne told us that she could not be present because the US State Department refused to grant her a visa to enter the USA. The US State Department also denied another member of the Commission who is also in exile, a visa to come and testify at the Thursday hearing.
But the State Department was not able to keep her testimony, albeit via letter, away. Congressman Payne read her account out loud for all to hear. She tells a chilling story of harassment, intimidations and murder. According to her letter, she was arrested by Meles Zenawi’s forces for granting the VOA interview and was released on bail. She hid in a church with her brother for over two weeks, afraid to go home because she had refused to retract her statements and had refused monetary and other rewards to change her statements. She was forced to leave her home, her siblings and her father still in detention, to live in exile in an unnamed African country.
After watching a video presentation of the Commission as it deliberated, it was time for the Chairman of the Commission to present his testimony. He began by telling the audience that “the truth had been abandoned, neglected and suppressed by the Government of Ethiopia”. He then carefully led the audience through the entire process that he and his colleagues undertook in carrying out their mandate in accordance with Proclamation 478/2005, which entrusted them with the task of conducting an inquiry concerning the violence that occurred on June 8, 2005 in Addis Ababa as well as those that occurred from November 1 to 10, 2005 and from November 14 to 16, 2005 in Addis Ababa and some other parts of the country.
He talked extensively about how the Commission set out to collect evidence; he talked gathering information from hospital records, police records, questionnaires and interviews etc. etc. he talked about visits to various jails and detention centers. He told us how the Commission’s work was constantly obstructed and how false hospital records were given to the Commission to cover up governments crimes of murder and torture. He told us how the government forces had told him that Itenesh Yimam had died of a heart attack when the whole world knew that she had been shot in her home, in front of her daughter, Alem Zuria, who was now living in exile. The evidence presented was overwhelming and I found the gentleman to be honest, frank and truly courageous.
Mr. Frehiwot Samuel told us that while the majority of the Commission members had voted that the government had used excessive force, and that there were two members that dissented. The very next day following their deliberations and conclusions, he said that he received numerous phone calls from the Prime Ministers Office. He said he was also visited at his home by person’s from the Prime Minister’s Office (he did give their names at the hearing) and also told us how he and his colleagues were summoned to Prime Minsiter Meles Zenawi’s office where he proceeded to tell them how they ought to interpret the Proclamations and how to construct their findings. According to the Commissioner, Meles spent 2 ½ hours telling them how he wanted them to emulate the Gambela case, and to reconsider their conclusions. He told them that the situation had mellowed and things had clamed down and there was no need to create problems by coming out with such a finding. It would rattle the peace.
As Meles was giving his directives, the Commissioner found out that the Parliament had been dismissed early and that he was not going to be able to present his findings. He said he was pressured into re-convening a meeting of the Commissioners and was told to re-take their votes, which he did. Surprisingly, nothing changed despite harassment, intimidations and coercion by government forces; they all remained true to their previous stands. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to deliver his Report to the Ethiopian Parliament and the Ethiopian people.
Mr. Mitiku from the Ethiopian Catholic Church, the other member of the Commission pretty much affirmed Mr. Frehiwot Samuel’s testimony. Mr. Birhanu Tsigu’s presented a history of human rights violations by the Meles led regime in Ethiopia for the last 15 years. He said that the June and November 2005 massacres and detentions were not new and that the regime had committed numerous violations in the past. Lynn Fredericksson told the audience that the human rights situation in Ethiopia had worsened since the May elections and went on to detail the numerous violations committed by the Meles regime. She also called on Congress to pass HR 5680, Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006 that has been stalled in Congress.
As I listened to the testimonies presented, I realized how Meles Zenawi conducted his internal affairs exactly as he did his international affairs. He knows he can get away with it; he has the protection of the US led international community who will white wash his crimes and provide him the financial, diplomatic and political cover he needs in order to advance their interest. It should be recalled that in violation of numerous Security Council resolutions and statements, and in violation of international law and the Algiers Agreement Ethiopia singed on December 2000, the Meles regime rejected the Final and Binding decision of the Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC) which was delivered on 13 April 2002.
Just a few weeks after the EEBC had delivered its decision, the Meles regime tried to get the Commissioners to alter amend, change, revisit, and revise their decision. When that did not work, the minority regime maligned the EEBC in the media, insulted them, intimidated and harassed them and even shot at their helicopters. After Ethiopia’s continuous obstruction of the work of the EEBC, it was forced to leave the area and demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia border came to a complete halt. The US led international community has yet to take punitive actions against Meles Zenawi and his genocidal, vote rigging minority regime, but is instead looking for ways to appease Meles once again.
The US State Department also came to Meles’ aid and prevented US lawmakers from taking action against his minority regime. The US State Department blocked the passage of the Bill HR 2760, which was co-sponsored by US Representatives Tom Lantos (D-California), Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), Edward Royce (R-California) and Elliot Engel (D-New York) that called for the speedy demarcation of the Eritrea Ethiopia Border, citing national security reasons.
The US State Department also intervened on behalf of Meles Zenawi and his belligerent, genocidal, vote rigging regime by introducing time buying pretexts such as “dialogue” and “neutral facilitator”, in violation of the Algiers Agreements and in blatant interference with the Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission’s sole mandate to demarcate the Eritrea Ethiopia border in accordance with the 13 April 2002 Final and Binding decision. The interventions on Meles’s behalf have emboldened him to defy international law with impunity. Today, his regime is militarily occupying sovereign Eritrean territories, including Badme.
The US State Department continues to provide Meles, a “staunch US ally” in the global war on terrorism, with political and diplomatic cover as he interferes in the internal affairs of Somalia in violation of Security Council Resolution 733 which calls for a political settlement of the conflict in Somalia, seeks to promote the process of reconciliation and for the purpose of establishing peace and stability in Somalia had called on all states to:
“… immediately implement a general and complete embargo on all deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Somalia…to refrain from any action which might contribute to increasing tension and to impeding or delaying a peaceful and negotiated outcome to the conflict in Somalia, which would permit all Somalis to decide upon and to construct their future in peace…”
With US backing, Meles’ regime is preparing for war in Somalia, threatening to destabilize the Horn region further and endanger the lives of the people in the region. The people of Somalia are being prevented from exercising their right to self determination. By labeling Somali leaders as “terrorists” and “extremists, without providing concrete evidence, the US State Department is unnecessarily exacerbating an already tenuous situation in the Horn and brings to question its intentions in the Horn.
On 27 October 2006, Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs addressing the Press at the Washington Foreign Press Center, responding to a question about the Ethiopian Commissions report said:
“…Well, we’ve read it, we’ve taken note of it and we’re very concerned about the findings, you know, that there’s been this violence and the people who — the government forces that have carried out this violence need to be held accountable, and I think we’ve said so publicly, you know, and we certainly have expressed our concern as well through our chargé there, our ambassador, to also say to the government, you know, this is a real problem. You know, so we continue to express concern about the findings of that commission…”
I suppose Ms. Jendayi will be happy to note that Meles Zenawi has produced a different Report, which was recently presented to the Ethiopian Parliament and she will not need to “continue to express concern about the findings of the Commission”. But how is the US State Department going to ignore the Report presented at Congressman Payne’s hearing? What about the video tapes? What about the phone conversations that were recorded? What about the eye witnesses?
Ethiopians should wake up and realize that the US State Department has no intention of taking any punitive actions against the Meles led minority regime in Ethiopia for its violations against the Ethiopian people or its continued violations of international law.
The rule of law will prevail over the law of the jungle
* Sophia Tesfamariam is from the US Foundation for the Horn of Africa. She can be reached at sophia_tesfamariam@hotmail.com
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