Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1193 -- The Ethiopian army, judiciary and
diplomatic corps are still subject to numerous defections of employees and
officials who go into exile to the United States.
After the defection at the beginning of August of the Oromo General Kemal
Gelchu, more departures into exile have followed among Ethiopian diplomats and
other top officials in the government of Addis Ababa. A Deputy Attorney
General Alemayehu Zemedkun thus fled to the United States at the beginning of
August where he asked for political asylum. Zemedkun, 41, left his wife and
two children in Addis Ababa and fled to the USA after the Ethiopian
authorities had asked him to take over the case of the charges against the
leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP, opposition)
imprisoned in Addis Ababa. He had attempted to convince his superiors,
including the Minister of Justice Shemeles Kemale, that there was no case to
answer, but to no avail. He then decided to go into exile. Since then, his
testimony on Internet web sites and Ethiopian opposition blogs has shed a
blunt light on the actions and attitudes of the Ethiopian executives, such as
the minister of justice.
Some tens of defections have taken place lately in Ethiopian diplomatic
circles. Meanwhile, suspicion has gone up a notch inside the ministry for
foreign affairs about diplomats not felt to be sufficiently docile with the
regime in place in Addis Ababa. Matters got even worse after revelations in
the international media of confidential documents written by a foreign affairs
ministry high official on its propaganda strategy. Some Ethiopian opponents
have been able to draw up a list of 59 names of diplomats who have defected
these last few months. They include two former Ambassadors (Yohanes Genda and
Fleshes Adugna Wordofa) a few ministerial counsellor and a large number of
junior diplomats. Among the latest defections to date are those of a diplomat
in the Ethiopian embassy to India, of Biruk Hailu plenipotentiary minister to
the embassy in Paris and Gizachew Bizuayehu, counsellor. The wife of the
former Ambassador Kassahun Ayele is also believed to be filing her request for
political asylum in the United States.
The majority of these diplomats complain about the management methods of
their hierarchical superiors, of the generalised climate of suspicion that
reins in the Ethiopian embassies and the obscure role of certain Tigrayan
diplomats of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF, hard core of the
EPRDF in power in Addis Ababa) operating as true political commissionaires.
General Kemal Gelchu, who fled to Eritrea along with twenty other Ethiopian
servicemen, is for his part expected to join the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF,
armed opposition). He accuses the actions of the Tigrayan hierarchy in the
Ethiopian army and has revealed the growing level of discontent among
non-Tigrayan soldiers.
A dignitary goes shopping in Paris
Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1194 16/09/2006 -- An official of the governing coalition EPRDF and member of the central committee of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF, the dominant party in Addis Ababa) went shopping in the luxury stores in Paris this week. He made a stop in Paris on his way home from the United States, spending almost 18,000 euros (over 190,000 birrs) since the beginning of this week on perfume, women's clothes and handbags in Champs Elysée Sephora, Louis Vuitton to name but a few.