የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ የጋራ ትግል ሸንጎ (ሸንጎ) Ethiopian People's Congress for United Struggle (Congress) www.derbiaber.com shengo.derbiaber@gmail.com

Two decades have passed since TPLF/EPRDF imposed its brazen ethnocentric and repressive regime on our country, Ethiopia. Its large-scale measures of repression and terrorization of the Ethiopian people have continued unabated. A United Struggle is a Necessity, not an Option! Over the years, TPLF/EPRDF has shown that it is inherently undemocratic in its governance. It has stifled all political dissent. Prisons and detention centers are overcrowded with actual and perceived opposition leaders and their members, who are persecuted merely for their political beliefs. TPLF/EPRDF has effectively denied the Ethiopian people freedom of expression and press freedom is practically nonexistent; its draconian press, "anti-terrorism", and other repressive ‘laws’ criminalize any commentary and dissent against the TPLF/EPRDF regime. As such, the regime keeps silencing anyone with differing views. Over the last several years, more journalists have been forced into exile than any other country in the world. Hardly could one find any free press in operation in Ethiopia—be it in print, online or other forms of media. TPLF/EPRDF continues to hand out large tracts of fertile land to neighboring countries and foreign investors while forcibly uprooting the inhabitants from their own lands. The regime’s self-serving greed has not even spared holy places like the Waldba Monastery whose religious site has just been leased to foreigners. Worse still, the TPLF/EPRDF minority group, which thrives on divide & rule systems, has deliberately created and fomented inter-communal conflicts among people of various ethnic and religious groups. Ethiopian Moslems have also been targets of the regime. It has interfered in the religious leadership of the Moslem community and has arrested the faithful worshipers at the mosque. The need for all Ethiopians to join hands so as to reverse the appalling and critical situation has never been more compelling now than ever before. The forceful eviction of over 87,000 Amharas from the southern Ethiopia speaks volume of its dangerous ethnic cleansing agenda. As the regime swells its pocket from the plunder of Ethiopia, the cost of living has created misery and destitution for the masses of the land. As the situation gets worse, it is becoming more apparent that there is a burning need for all Ethiopians to join hands together to reverse this appalling trend before it extends to a full blown crisis with unpredictable consequences. It is upon realizing the dangerous trend and intending consequences stirred by the TPLF/EPRDF’s brutal and dictatorial rule that various Ethiopian opposition groups set out to collectively find solutions towards bringing democratic changes and lasting peace to the suffering of our people. About two years ago, a few prominent Ethiopians started the process by calling on all Ethiopian opposition forces to form an alliance. This was followed by a number of political and civic organizations as well as other prominent Ethiopians joining the alliance-building effort. The initiative made all effort to make the process all inclusive and relied on financial and moral support of many Ethiopians worldwide. Finally, from May 18 to 21, 2012 an all-parties conference attended by several Ethiopian political & civic organizations and renowned individuals was held in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. The participants assessed the prevailing situation of Ethiopia and reflected on the lessons learned from past experiences of alliances and coalitions. The Conference culminated in a unanimous agreement to form an alliance and the establishment of the Ethiopian People’s Congress for United Struggle (hereinafter “The Congress”). The Congress stipulated five unifying points, namely, accepting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia; respecting the rule of law; accepting a democratic system of governance; believing in the equality of all citizens before the law; and believing in the removal of the dictatorial regime of TPLF/EPRDF and replacing it with a democratic political system accountable to the people. Further, the Congress approved its bylaws together with its structure and it named its executive leadership and various departments. Unique to this Congress, a Council of Elders was created with a mandate to resolve any issues that may arise among the members of the Congress. Finally, the Congress extends its open arms for any political and civic groups as well as individuals who share our five cornerstone values to join us in the struggle for a better Ethiopia. Thank you. A united struggle to bring about a lasting peace, democratic and just system in Ethiopia

Ethiopia: Obama Focus on Current Plight of Ethiopian Civil Society, Media, and Political Opposition

Dear President Obama, I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com. I am writing to express my concern about your invitation to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to attend a meeting on food security during the G-8 summit at Camp David on May 19. I urge you to use your time together to address the current plight of Ethiopian civil society, media, and political opposition. Otherwise, your invitation risks sending the wrong message at a time when Ethiopia’s human rights situation is becoming increasingly grim. After more than two decades of Meles Zenawi’s leadership, Ethiopia’s institutions have become mere extensions of ruling party power. The country has steadily grown more authoritarian since the 2005 elections ended in bloodshed and controversy. The ruling party won more than 99 per cent of the seats in both the 2008 local government elections and the 2010 general parliamentary elections, mainly due to the government’s comprehensive crackdown on dissent. In recent years the Ethiopian government has severely curtailed basic freedoms, particularly freedom of expression and association. I am not certain how many people Ethiopia has wrongfully detained for peacefully expressing their political views because the government will not allow credible, independent organizations access to all detention facilities. Credible estimates place the number of people arbitrarily detained in the thousands, particularly in regions like Oromia and Somali Region, where the government faces long-running insurgencies. Torture, ill treatment, and appalling conditions of detention are widespread in Ethiopia’s prisons. The government has increasingly used flawed legislation to persecute independent voices. Prime Minister Zenawi’s government has used the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation to undermine the work of independent civil society organizations, especially those working on human rights. Several of the oldest and most respected Ethiopian human rights groups have been forced to cease most of their operations due to the restrictions on foreign funding imposed by the law or arbitrary enforcement by the new agency established to regulate nongovernmental activity. The government has also used a 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to target members of the media and political opposition, arresting more than 100 people in 2011. To date, five journalists and two opposition members have been convicted under the law. Six journalists, at least two opposition members, and 16 others are currently on trial facing politically motivated terrorism charges. Two of those convicted in 2011 were Swedish journalists who were attempting to report on the conflict in the Ogaden region, where Ethiopian security forces have allegedly committed crimes against humanity during counter-insurgency operations. They were both sentenced to 11 years in prison. Dozens of other opposition members and supporters remain in detention awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges. Finally, the government has issued a new legal directive compelling the government printing office (the only printing press still operational in the country) to censor the content of all publications under threat of criminal sanction. The United States, the World Bank, and other states and institutions have shown little or no attention to Ethiopia’s worsening human rights record. By inviting Prime Minister Meles to the G-8 summit, the U.S government is sending a message that at best shows a lack of concern about the human rights situation in Ethiopia, and at worst, will be perceived as a U.S. endorsement of the Ethiopian government’s policies. I urge your administration to review its policy towards Ethiopia and consider how U.S. government programs—including those pertaining to development and military assistance—can be re-tooled to advance the cause of human rights in Ethiopia. The U.S. should privately and publicly call upon the Ethiopian government to take credible and immediate steps to reverse Ethiopia’s policy of human rights repression. Ethiopia should amend the Charities and Societies and the Anti-Terrorism Proclamations to bring them into compliance with international best practices, release all persons arbitrarily detained, including opposition members and journalists, and ensure access throughout the country for humanitarian and human rights organizations and the media. Yours, William Nicholas Gomes Human Rights Ambassador for Salem News.com Salem-News.com P.O. Box 5238 Salem, Oregon 97304 www.williamgomes.org

Is Linking Democracy and Economic Growth Telling a Bedtime Story? A Quick Look at Ato Meles Zenawi’s Assertion By Fekade Shewakena

At the world Economic Forum, conference held in Addis Ababa, in May, 2012 that some in the media dubbed the Meles Zenawi Show [1], Ato Meles Zenawi said “there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy, historically or theoretically…..I don’t believe in bedtime stories, contrived arguments linking economic growth with democracy”, He was even more unequivocal and emphatic when he added that “We need to democratize but not in order to grow”. According to him the only reason we need to democratize for is “in order to survive as united sane nation”. He didn’t care to elaborate on what he meant by surviving as united sane nation. Only God knows how he compartmentalized the usefulness of democracy for the sanity of a nation and how any such sanity doesn’t directly relate to economic growth. There is every reason to suspect that this was a strong attempt on the part of the Prime Minister to fend off the barrage of criticism coming at him these days about the closure of democratic space in the country, the abuse of human rights, the repression of civil society and free expression from his irate donors in the west. He was in effect saying judge me by the economic growth statistics I give you, not by my credentials on democracy and human rights. I suspect his experience of attempted opening of the country for democracy in 2005 has fatally blinded him. If Ato Meles was opining as an academic and not as a head of a government, we could have taken his statement lightly and perhaps as something which is only academic, i.e., something that has value only in the exercise of thought with benign relevance to real world situations. But when such declarative statements as the Prime Minister’s, which are at best based on half truths, come from people in positions of power, it gets troubling and scary. It is even more troubling when the individuals are the kinds that pursue their beliefs with zeal and propensity to use the machinery of state force at their disposal in pursuit of their ideas. Anybody who lives the military dictatorship in Ethiopia remembers the deafening declaratory statements of Mengistu and his officials such as the “not only do we control the reactionaries – we will control nature too” slogan. A regime official who I once politely told that the Gambella plains were unfit to resettle peasants moved from highland Ethiopia, accused me of preaching cowardice and told me that I am confused by pseudo education. He said what is important is the belief and conviction, the rest is easy. I only told him that unlike the highlands, the flat plain in Gambella has drainage problems, and that the soil gets waterlogged and leached and not reach in soluble minerals that many crops need adding that the green forest should not fool us. I had to shut up my coward mouth and regretted for venturing into dangerous territory. The disingenuous project ended up in shambles even before it started. Meles’s declaratory statement is also in the same tradition. It is an indication of a decision by him that the prevailing intolerance of dissent and civil discourse is going to be kept in place. I fear that this may lead to the intensification of existing conflicts and widespread discontent in the country. As someone who doesn’t prefer a violent or revolutionary approach to the solution of Ethiopia’s problems, I sincerely do fear. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Prime Minister is half right. But his assertion seems to be based on linear thinking and selective reading of the literature on the relationship between democracy and economic growth. I am sure he has read the works of some in academia that do make similar generalizations about the relationship between democracy and economic growth. He has disregarded that in many cases even these conclusions depend on the measures they use and the context of their studies. Unlike the Prime Minister, many of these academics and researchers who do come to these conclusions are careful to add that the relationship between democracy and economic growth is more complex than meets the eye and encourage us to do more innovative examination and develop methodologies and do a more careful use of data. In fact, the literature of political economic thoughts regarding the relationship between democracy and economic growth is in many cases contentious and inconclusive and varies with the country or region considered and the kind of data used. Yes, economic growth can occur even under tyrannical dictatorships. The world has many examples of places where economic growth and democracy even seem to relate inversely, so much that the linear thinker can conclude democracy affects economic growth negatively. Kaddafi’s Libya and many of the rich countries in the Gulf and Asia provide ample example of this. Russia’s transformative achievement in infrastructure such as the building of the world famous Moscow subway and other industries occurred under iron feasted Joseph Stalin. China’s one party rule hasn’t slowed its growth although many attribute the speed of its growth to liberalization within the party and managing conflicts including the country’s cultural context. That you do and don’t fit the variables in a linear regression model and predict an outcome may not necessarily mean a universal relationship does or doesn’t exist. Professional observers suggest the need for a closer examination of each country’s economic realities, resource bases, level of development and their socio-cultural environments more than accepting these observations as universal truth as our Prime Minister does. But none on all sides in the debate on the subject come to saying anything approaching what our Prime Minister said – that it is a bedtime story. Like all knowledge the enquiry goes on and on. Our Prime Minister seems to want to stop it. If I am as selective as Meles, I can bring testimonies of non-armchair researchers who made many empirical studies that show the direct effects of democracy on economic growth and development using various components of democracy as measures. Scholars like Cooper Drury et al., who actually made hands in the mud kind of research as opposed to armchair contemplation, for example, argue: …one of democracy’s indirect benefits is its ability to mitigate the detrimental effect of corruption on economic growth. Although corruption certainly occurs in democracies, the electoral mechanism inhibits politicians from engaging in corrupt acts that damage overall economic performance and thereby jeopardize their political survival. Using time-series cross-section data for more than 100 countries from 1982-97, we show that corruption has no significant effect on economic growth in democracies, while non-democracies suffer significant economic harm from corruption. [2] These individuals have crunched massive data across time to be dismissed as tellers of bedtime stories. Bringing Nobel Prize winner political economist, Amartya Sen, who famously said democracies don’t starve, in this argument with our Prime Minister, may be like taking a gun to a knife fight. Instead, let me bring two other Indian professors, Sarbapriya Ray and Ishita Aditya Ray, who used a fairly sophisticated model to understand causality between democracy and economic growth. Here is what they say: Using co-integration analysis for the period 1980-81 to 2009-10, we seek to identify the relationship between economic growth and democracy. Our empirical results suggest that there is a long run bi-directional causality between economic growth and democracy in India. Moreover, our statistical investigation confirms that democracy affects economic growth positively and vice versa both at regional level as well as aggregate level. [3] There are actually many studies that show that India’s current leap to a newly developed country relates to its robust democracy. I could have gone on and on citing other studies that challenge the Prime Minister’s wild assertions that the relationship is a bedtime story. I believe Ato Meles is savvy enough to locate the materials if he intends to base his views in knowledge and honesty and doesn’t have an axe to grind against democracy. In my view, there is perhaps no other country that needs democracy as the primary tool of getting out of its poverty as Ethiopia does. In the past we tried it through governments that tightly control the people and failed abysmally. Now we have to try a government where our people have at least some significant say in it. It is simple common sense to understand that economic growth and development in Ethiopia cannot be achieved and sustained in conditions where simmering political conflicts prevail, where there is little rule of law, where people have no confidence and control on what they do, where corruption and favoritism are rampant and government continuously hovers over the heads of everyone. The largely aid funded growth in Ethiopia in infrastructure and social services and massive Diaspora remittance are no substitute to what we can get out of building democratic institutions. The PM’s suggestion that Ethiopia doesn’t need to democratize for economic growth is not different from his now defunct idea of choosing Albania as our model. There is some weird picture we see in Ethiopia today when we juxtapose the economic gains over the past several years and the real life conditions of the Ethiopian people. How is it that the economic growth that Ato Meles brags about is related to more and more people becoming unable to feed themselves and their children? The multidimensional conflicts prevailing in Ethiopia need a resolution through a democratic and transparent discourse. Suppressing them is guaranteeing the destruction of whatever gains we have made. We are already losing a lot of opportunity because of the closure of the political space in the country. Economic growth cannot be guaranteed under conditions where Ethiopia is losing its human capital at alarming rates. I see a massive wealth and potential of Ethiopians outside and inside Ethiopia not being put to use because of the democracy deficit. Ato Meles would help Ethiopia more if he becomes an expert of the art of compromise than a political economist. Fekadeshewakena@yahoo.com References [1] http://allafrica.com/stories/201205150820.html [2] Cooper Dury et al. (2006): Corruption Democracy and Economic growth: International Political Science Review (2006), Vol 27, No 2, 121-136. [3] Sarbapriya Ray and Ishita Aditya Ray (2011): Regional analysis on the relationship between Economic Growth and Democracy: Evidence from India: Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences Volume 2, No. 2.3 Quarter III 2011 ISSN 2229 – 5313.