By Alemayehu G. Mariam In his book Night, Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and the man the Nobel Committee called the “messenger to mankind” when it awarded him the peace prize in 1986, wrote: For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and the…
By Alemayehu Gebremariam Recently, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned that the African delegation he is expected to lead to the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December would walk out of any “negotiations that threaten to be another rape of the continent.” The Ethiopian dictator, who was speaking in Addis Ababa at a meeting…
By Alemayehu G. Mariam Free Birtukan and All Political Prisoners in Ethiopia! On March 2, 2009, Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia throughout the world will be taking to the streets to protest human rights violations by the ruling regime, and to demand the release of all political prisoners. The preeminent political prisoner and the undisputed…
In less than a month Mengistu HaileMariam and his Derg have been swept from the Ethiopian political landscape. Victory for the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPDRF) came quickly and Addis Ababa was captured with minimum resistance. The political implications of this victory however remain unclear. Historic ethnic antagonisms and rivalries continue to inspire an…
As opposition forces ringed Addis Ababa, Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam boarded an Ethiopian Airlines plane on May 22 and fled Ethiopia for a ranch in Zimbabwe. State-run radio announced Mengistu’s unceremonious departure without comment. After 14 years of iron-fisted rule, Mengistu left behind a demoralized army, a shattered economy, and an ethnically fragmented society. In…
