March 24, 2009
Open Letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
The Hon. Gordon Brown
Prime Minister of United Kingdom
10 Downing Street, London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister Brown:
We are writing to you as members of the Solidarity
Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), a newly
formed non-political movement of Ethiopians who are
seeking justice, reconciliation and peace in Ethiopia
as well as in the Horn of Africa, a strategic area of
importance, yet a region plagued with instability, conflict,
violence, corruption and poverty, much of it resulting
from the lack of justice, freedom, human rights and
good governance.
In light of this, the choice of Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi of Ethiopia as a representative for the whole
of Africa at the upcoming G-20 meeting to be held in
London on April 2nd only serves to undercut the efforts
of Ethiopians and other Africans in their struggle to
free themselves of authoritarian dictators such as Mr.
Meles Zenawi, who use repression, intimidation, corruption
and brutality to maintain a tyrannical government over
the majority of Ethiopians.
We in the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia,
and on behalf of the Ethiopian people, strongly urge
you to reconsider the inclusion of Mr. Meles Zenawi
as a guest at this very important meeting. By inviting
this man to represent the whole of Africa, allowing
him to stand side by side with leaders from free countries
who have been elected by their people, you are sending
a disturbing message to oppressed people that brutal
leaders can terrorize their people and still be rewarded
with undeserved impunity in such circles of power.
That message also carries with it the implication that
members of free countries, who already enjoy their rights
and liberties, are unwilling or disinterested in taking
a moral stand for others, like Ethiopians, who are still
fighting to achieve those same rights and liberties.
Unless the conscience of the international community
is stirred to recognize how this special treatment and
related support continues to empower dictatorships,
many in Third World countries will continue to suffer.
A recent source of encouragement was the International
Criminal Court issuance of a warrant for the arrest
of Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan, related to his complicity
in the widespread atrocities being perpetrated in Darfur.
Unfortunately, Mr. Meles was one of the first to defend
him and to condemn the warrant, perhaps because his
own government has also been implicated in a pattern
of widespread perpetration of serious human rights atrocities
throughout Ethiopia and into Somalia—including
acts documented as crimes against humanity and war crimes
by top international human rights organizations that
have been justified as “counter-insurgency.”
He and those within his government may be keenly aware
of their own vulnerability to similar actions by the
ICC in the future that could upend a deeply entrenched
system of government-supported impunity that has protected
perpetrators from any accountability.
For Ethiopians, Mr. Meles is no different than Omar
al-Bashir or Robert Mugabe even though the international
community treats them differently. Mr. Meles Zenawi
is an individual responsible for the rigging of the
Ethiopian National election where he declared himself
the winner. He was complicit in the repression and shooting
of 193 unarmed election protestors and in the arrest
and 20-month imprisonment of opposition leaders. He
is responsible for essentially killing the democratic
process in Ethiopia.
The one and only remaining legitimate political leader,
Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, is now a prisoner of conscience
according to Amnesty International and she is serving
a life sentence for refusing to recant from a statement
made in Sweden that she had not requested the pardon
which had led to the release of her and other opposition
leaders. A lawyer and former judge, Birtukan is the
first woman to ever lead a major political party in
Ethiopia.
While PM Meles meets with leaders of free world, Ms.
Birtukan remain in solitary confinement for more than
three months in a horrible prison infested with bugs
and rodents for doing the right thing that might otherwise
be honoured were she living in a free society such as
United Kingdom. She is in solitary confinement in Addis
Ababa for simply attempting to exercise her political
rights, the same rights Mr. Meles may disingenuously
discuss with other leaders during the G-20 meeting.
Ms. Birtukan left behind her four year old daughter
and now is living under terrible conditions. She is
in isolation in a small, filthy cell, at times forcibly
sleep deprived, denied access to book, newspaper, TV
and unable to see anyone except for her elderly mother
and her young daughter. No visitors from the International
Red Cross have been allowed and her health is reportedly
deteriorating. Ms. Birtukan has once identified as her
role models Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed leader
of Burma. It is sad that these two women with passion
for justice and truth live in countries where the governments
have complete contempt for truth and justice.
Although countries like the UK, the US, Canada and
other European countries have contributed millions of
dollars to promote good governance, an independent judiciary
and respect for human rights in Ethiopia, the government
of Mr. Meles instead suppresses political activity,
detains and harasses the opposition at will, allows
no independent media, imprisons more journalists than
most any other African country and perpetrates massive
atrocities against its own citizens.
A recent law passed by the Ethiopian government,
the Societies and Charities Proclamation, restricts
NGOs within the country who receive 10% or more from
foreign sources from promoting human rights, women’s
empowerment, children’s rights, rights for the
disabled and conflict resolution between ethnicities
and religions, threatening violators with prison sentences
of up to 15 years. This legislation is supported by
the same individual, Mr. Meles Zenawi, who is invited
to participate in the G-20 meeting. This is a painful
insult to the people of Ethiopia and other people struggling
for their God-given rights.
In 2008, officials from the UN called the humanitarian
disaster in southeastern Ethiopia (Ogaden) and in Somalia,
the worst crisis in the world, saying it was a “silent
Darfur” in scope and in seriousness. In its investigative
reports, Human Rights Watch documented that the Ethiopian
government held major responsibility for the perpetration
of widespread crimes against humanity and war crimes,
in violation of international human rights law.
This included extra-judicial killings, rape, carpet-bombing
villages (verified through satellite images), blocking
humanitarian aid, pillaging property, killing livestock
and displacing many hundreds of thousands of people,
a primary causal factor in creating this “greatest
humanitarian catastrophe in the world.” Yet, this
crisis is “silent” due to being under-reported
by the media and being largely ignored by the western
Medias and international community.
This current invitation to Mr. Meles is seen as another
means to promote a false image of him “as a new
breed of African leader” when in fact, he is no
different than Robert Mugabe or Omar al-Bashir, further
contributing to maintaining the “silence”
even though the devastation of life continues in the
Ogaden.
Ethiopians are not asking for you or those in the western
countries to do the hard work of bringing freedom, justice
and democracy to Ethiopia, but instead are asking you
to remove those supports that continue to prop up those
who are obstacles to our freedom like Mr. Meles Zenawi.
If Mr. Zenawi does attend this meeting, we ask you
to use this opportunity to urge him to immediately
release Ms. Birtukan Mideska and all other prisoners
of conscience within the country, to cease the perpetration
of the ongoing atrocities in the Ogaden, to
open up political space in anticipation of the coming
2010 election and to hold all perpetrators of human
rights crimes accountable. We would ask that you encourage
action in support of encouraging national reconciliation
among Ethiopians that could lead to genuine, sustainable
and inclusive peace in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Recommendations:
We are highly concerned about the advancement of reconciliation,
justice, peace and democracy in Ethiopia and in the
Horn of Africa and therefore, welcome the opportunity
to work with you and any other G-20 countries who support
these goals. We hope you take these issues we have raised
very seriously as stability of the Horn of Africa, as
well as in all of Africa, will raise the prospect of
peace and security in the world for “until we
all are free, no one will be free.”
We look forward to your response.
Sincerely yours,
Obang Metho,
Executive Director
Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE)
E-mail: Obang@solidaritymovement.org
This Letter has been cc: to all G-20 leaders.
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