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Campaign Letter to Senator Russ Feingold

Thursday, 06 March 2008

As a U.S. citizen of Ethiopian heritage, I am most grateful for your timely and most profound statement on the political crisis in Ethiopia as documented on the Congressional Record posted at http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/08/03/20080303.htm.

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The Honorable Senator Russ Feingold

506 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510-4904

Tel. (202) 224-5323, Fax 202-224-2725, fax 608-828-1203, Fax 414-276-7284

Re: H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007)

Dear Honorable Senator:

As you are aware, Congressional leaders Donald Payne, Christopher Smith, Mike Honda, Tom Lantos and the 85 co-sponsors of H.R. 2003 championed the just cause of 80 million Ethiopians and succeeded in securing the passage of H.R.2003 in the House. As a staunch advocate of democracy yourself, I call upon you Honorable Senator to join your colleagues in support of democracy and the rule of law in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people have for a long time been struggling to bring about democratic governance to their country, but the struggle has been frustrated by two successive brutal and oppressive regimes. This is why I would like you and the US Senate to give the people of Ethiopia the moral support they deserve by endorsing H.R.2003.

The true and lasting allies of the US are the people of Ethiopia who are striving to establish a genuine democracy, and not Meles Zenawi, the former follower of the Albanian communist model of Enver Hoxa, who continues to divide and conquer his political opposition. I am concerned that an impoverished Ethiopia under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's tyrannical rule and his Ethnic Apartheid could become a breeding ground for terrorism. I believe a truly democratic Ethiopia will be the key to the stability of the Horn of Africa.

The main cause of Ethiopia's poverty is the absence of the enabling environment of democracy that could have made development possible. Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa. A founding member of the United Nations, Ethiopia is the seat of the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Recognized as the cradle of humanity, Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world with a recorded history of over three thousand years, mentioned in the Bible 41 times, and the only country in black Africa with its own Ge'ez alphabet and rich literature. Ethiopia is a source of the Blue Nile and is endowed with many rivers and extensive fertile land. Ethiopians take great pride in the fact that their country has never been colonized. How come then a country with such positive attributes and a great potential for being a success story in Africa, is yet one of the poorest countries in the world? The answer is obvious--tyranny, not democracy, is on the march in Ethiopia. Today, there is no rule of law in Ethiopia, but the rule of Zenawi.

Ethiopia entered a new era when the United States facilitated the TPLF/EPRDF guerilla group to takeover Mengistu Hailemariam's government at a London Peace Conference in May 1991. Mr. Herman Cohen, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the time, after stating democracy as a US foreign policy objective, warned the new rulers with his famous words, "No Democracy, No Aid," and encouraged them to establish a broad-based transitional government and to hold free and fair elections. Mr. Cohen has expressed his disappointment with Meles Zenawi on a recent VOA interview whom he now finds to be "quite totalitarian."

Regrettably, some in the international community not only seem to ignore the intimidations, mass arrests, beatings, and extra judicial killings of the past 17 years but also unwittingly condone the country's race to the bottom by suggesting that Zenawi is an improvement over his predecessor by portraying him as one of the "new breeds" of African democratic leaders. Others have also stated that the opposition should be happy that their representation grew from 12 to 174 and they have even tried to put pressure on the opposition to join Parliament and to work within the "legal" framework. Yet, the Ethiopian people are currently waging a life-and-death struggle to extricate themselves from Meles Zenawi's tyrannical rule and economic mismanagement. The victory of the opposition of the May 15, 2005 elections was a resounding repudiation of Meles Zenawi's ethnic politics that has sliced and diced Ethiopia into Bantustans.

Consistent with the fact that democracy is a US foreign policy objective, President Bush declared at his second inaugural address on January 20, 2005, "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you."

Dear Honorable Senator, I hereby appeal to you to urge the U.S. Senate to pass H.R.2003 and to advise President Bush to deliver on his promise by using his good offices to pressure Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to do the right thing. If President Bush considers democracy is good for Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, and Ukraine it ought to be good for Ethiopia as well. I therefore kindly request for your help to advise the Bush Administration to engage the Ethiopian regime and get Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to respect the people's votes; to guarantee the safety and security of elected opposition leaders; to release all political prisoners and to respect the democratic opposition's right to public assembly and access to state-owned media. Most of all, I would like the Bush Administration to break the current impasse between the regime and the opposition parties by providing a roadmap for a peaceful transitional arrangement.

The best international aid the United States can give to the people of Ethiopia is to champion their just cause for genuine democracy.

Dear Honorable Senator, thank you again for championing the just cause of 80 million Ethiopians!

Respectfully yours,

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